Positioning as membership management: The case of narratives about public authorities

The contribution looks into the mechanisms of interactively establishing identities by managing memberships in the special case of telling a researcher about experiences and assessments with respect to public authorities. Drawing on the particular potential of these data, it is shown how the tasks of assigning memberships and ascribing appropriate category-bound activities are performed within evaluative practices and how general assessments and singular personal experiences are intertwined to position the teller in the ongoing interaction.