From discourse-as-action to action-as-discourse: Embodied resistance in Stanley Milgram’s obedience experiments.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter (peer-reviewed)peer-review

Abstract

Recent secondary analyses of audio recordings from Stanley Milgram’s obedience experiments have highlighted the situated, flexible, and contingent nature of obedience in Milgram’s lab. This chapter extends this work by considering the embodied dimension of the struggle between experimenter, participants, and learner. Obedience in Milgram’s paradigm required specific physical actions, such as pressing levers, thus meaning that resistance was marked by the non-performance of embodied action. These actions could be topicalised by those present in the laboratory as part of the argument over the continuation of the experimental session. In exploring these arguments, this chapter considers whether the scope of discursive psychological analysis might be widened to accompany the well-established dictum that discourse-is-action with a renewed consideration of the idea that action-is-discourse.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationDiscursive psychology and embodiment: Beyond subject-object binaries.
EditorsSally Wiggins, Karin Osvaldsson Cromdal
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
Pages33-56
ISBN (Print)978-3-030-53708-1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020

Publication series

NamePalgrave Studies in Discursive Psychology

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