Reimagining Rapport

What, precisely, is rapport? Ethnographers have long treated it as a precondition for fieldwork, and as ethnographic methods have spread through social research, and sociolinguistics in particular, that assumption has gone largely unquestioned. Compared with neighbouring notions such as communication or phatic communion, rapport has received surprisingly little close attention.

This volume takes a skeptical look at how the term is used across disciplines. It traces how historical currents and key figures within sociocultural anthropology gave the concept its shape, and asks whether it is still a useful one. Instead of a fixed, positive bond a researcher must secure before any work begins, the contributors propose rethinking rapport in theoretical, methodological and meta-methodological terms. Zane Goebel and other leading sociolinguists present it as an emergent, co-constructed relationship that takes shape during situated, multimodal interactions.

The contributors examine how ideology and mediation shape the building of rapport. They argue that reconceiving the relationships between researchers and the people they study is necessary for a richer understanding, interpretation and representation of the research context.

The book will interest scholars and students of sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology, as well as anyone carrying out ethnographic fieldwork. It is presented as the first collection to investigate this important but hitherto overlooked concept in depth.