Beyond the Black Box: Talk-In-Interaction in the Airline Cockpit (Directions in Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis) [Hardcover]

Maurice Nevile (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2004 | ISBN-10: 0754642402 | ISBN-13: 978-0754642404

This is the first and only study of the interaction between pilots in the cockpit of commercial aircraft. It examines, in close detail, the communication that pilots engage in with one another and with other parties, such as traffic controllers, as they perform the routine tasks involved in flying an aircraft. It also makes an important contribution to literature on work and language by addressing one of the most highly technological settings there is: the aircraft cockpit. Using data taken from audio and video recordings of pilots talking in aircraft cockpits, it draws on the analytical approaches of ethnomethodology and conversation analysis to analyse their task-related communications. It shows that although the tasks performed by pilots may be 'routine', the communications in and through which they are managed are artful accomplishments. Through the shaping of their talk, the pilots manage its indexical and situated properties in effective and skilled ways. In so doing they accomplish in their moment-by-moment interaction the required features of the pilot's work in the cockpit.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Maurice Nevile is a Visiting Fellow in the Linguistics and Applied Linguistics program in the School of Language Studies at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra. His research interests are interaction in workplace, institutional and sociotechnical settings, language and interaction in aviation, interactional linguistics, situated and embodied cognition, and gesture in interaction.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 245 pages
• Publisher: Ashgate Pub Ltd (August 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0754642402
• ISBN-13: 978-0754642404
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,604,410 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars For those who demand detail . . ., December 10, 2007

By 

Dave English (Arizona, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beyond the Black Box: Talk-In-Interaction in the Airline Cockpit (Directions in Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis) (Hardcover)

This is an amazing project, carefully executed, thoughtfully recorded. Let's state right away that this is NOT one of those books that have 'black box' recordings of aviation accidents. It is rather a ground-breaking nothing-quite-like-it incredibly detailed micro-analysis of routine language and interaction in the professional airline cockpit. For the applied psychology researcher interested in how pilots really communicate in a cockpit or answering questions of small team cognition this is a valuable reference, fully citing its own sources.

As someone lucky enough to be a LOSA observer at a major airline, I appreciate that this subject requires carefully study to make realistic suggestions. However the price of this book encourages library purchase rather than individual purchase for all but the most hard-core small-team cognition-in-action fans.