Omni-relevance and interactional context

During the course of this article the concept of omni-relevance is explored in relation to talkin- interaction. Through the use of the reconsidered model of membership categorization analysis (Housley and Fitzgerald, 2002) issues relating to context and understanding within the local production of interactional order are discussed. The paper argues that the use of omni-relevant devices and associated ‘recognition work’ provide a means of empirically documenting how ‘extra-textual understanding’ and ‘background expectancies’ are made retrospectively apparent within the contours of membership work and alignment in story telling practices. To this extent we argue that an understanding of omni-relevance and membership categorization practices is central to debates concerning category, sequence and context within empirical studies of talk-in-interaction