INTERGROUP RELATIONS IN GROUP CARE. A DISCURSIVE ANALYSIS OF PROFESSIONALS TALKING ABOUT EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL GROUPS

Focusing on intergroup relations, this study analyzes its discursive accomplishment in group care for out-of-home children. Due to its social mandate, group care is organized in groups, delivered by groups of professionals, and connected with other groups (e.g., children’s biological families, schools, social services). For the purpose of this study, we combine a quali-quantitative approach to three differently-organized Italian group care facilities’ ethnographic interviews and focus on the discursive accomplishment of ingroup-outgroup opposition, ingroup bias and group qualification. Differently from laboratory studies, our results show that intergroup relations are locally tied and categorically permeable, accounting for multiple groups at the same time – either in the past, present or future – by means of different positionalities from the participants’ parts. In terms of comparison between the three facilities, we illustrate how, when talking about ingroup-outgroup, participants differently rely on turn orchestration, social categorization markers and qualifying devices. These results, together with our ethnographic observations and interactive studies, opens interesting new reflections on the isomorphism of discourses, practices and (interactive) work.