Drinking up endings: conversational resources of the café

Abstract

A first theme of this article is the abiding relationship between the café and conversation. A relationship which begins with Habermas’s emphasis on political debate in early modernity and continues to more contemporary studies of the service encounter. A second theme is conversation analysis and its concern with closing sequences of phonecalls. Drawing on the work of Goodwin I examine the importance of gesture and materials in closing sequences in one of the many conversations we have off-line. Given that it is the café the bodily movements of speakers are in and around both the architectures of the café and, centrally, the drinking of drinks. An illustrated transcript of two co-workers closing their conversation, and stay, in café is analysed to flesh out the argument over the resource that drinking provides for talking together.