ABSTRACT

This doctoral thesis examines police border checks organised in the Spain – France border area (La Jonquera – Le Perthus). The main objective of these police checks is to prevent illegal activities (i.e., crime control). Drawing on 272 video recorded data, my research examines police-civilian encounters as an example of interpersonal communication and social interaction. For this purpose, data is transcribed and analysed with Conversation Analysis (CA). The analysis focuses on the sequential organisation and local management of police-civilian conversations. The results indicate that (1) suspicion (i.e., the resolution of suspicion) is what shapes the progressivity of the encounter and the way participants interact in these police interactions; and (2) CA allows to identify which actions and language resources are meaningful and have an impact in the resolution of suspicion, and how they are oriented to accomplishing participants’ objectives (e.g., findings grounds of suspicion, achieving understanding) in the interaction (including multilingual interactions).

​​​​​​Keywords: Interpersonal communication, social interaction, Conversation Analysis, police interaction, crime control, border security. 

Date: May 14, 2024

Time: 11.00h

Room: 55.410 (Poblenou Campus)

Language: English