What does Conditionally Relevant mean?
This is a bit of a pun I thought was funny. In conversation analysis, a lot of talk is said to be organised in pairs of actions, a first pair part (FPP) and a second pair part (SPP). Consider someone invites you to a party. Their invitation constituted the FPP. The invitation also sets up that a response of some kind from you (like accepting or rejecting the invitation) would be relevant (i.e., “expected”, or would be treated as missing if it doesn’t end up being said). So, we can say that SPPs/responses (like accepting or rejecting) are made relevant based on the occurrence of an FPP.
The blog is called Conditionally Relevant because what I post will likely be my responses to things, events, ideas, and will likely often feature conversation analysis. However, the thoughts I share are only conditionally relevant to you, the reader; the content of this blog will be of relevance to you to only if you share my interests in the things I say.
Conversation analysis needs more puns (and memes generally).
What about the subtitle, “Conversations at the Margins”?
Unfortunately, that is also a pun in a similar vein. “Conversations” because there will be discussion but much of that will likely engage conversation analysis. “Margins” because the content may be fringe or weird, frequently not academic. However, A lot of what I work on/around includes marginalised people and their lives and concerns. My research focuses on interactions including or about marginalised people. And as such, marginalised discourses will likely feature much. In a sense, ethnomethodology and conversation analysis themselves are marginalised approaches (at least in my original discipline of psychology).
Conditionally Relevant 