Microstructures of economic action: talk, interaction and the bottom line

This paper contributes to an expanding body of research that has analysed the interactional foundations of economic activity, and price determination, by quantifying the financial implications of different micro-interactional practices. Drawing on video recordings of naturalistic interaction the paper analyses a simple consumer choice, whether to pay one of two prices, the lower 'standard' price (£ 8.00) or the higher 'gift aid' (£ 8.80) price, to enter an arts institution. Utilizing resources from conversation analysis, the paper analyses different ways of posing this choice. It describes how, as interactional constraints tighten, standard prices become less socially desirable and customers increasingly 'volunteer' to pay the higher price. The paper contributes to sociological understandings of economic activity, demonstrating how simple one-off choices, and prices, are accountably responsive to micro-interactional structures.