"Why do you ask?"

The first volume to make questions and questioning the explicit focus of its investigation, this book examines the use of questions in institutional discourse. Fifteen original essays consider a wide range of institutional settings--from traditionally studied contexts such as medicine, law, and the mass media to little-considered settings such as call centers, counseling environments, and help lines. It documents the ways in which social change has transformed the nature of institutional encounters and, at the same time, has increased the sorts of institutional encounters in which people engage, particularly those associated with service-related activities.