Key practitioners and researchers explore how people routinely and at particular sites are discursively constructed as deficient in ways that may affect their life chances. The book offers examples of how adopting multiple perspectives on research can provide a rich explanatory analysis of the construct of 'deficit' in a range of domains.

MICHELLE ALDRIDGE Cardiff University, UK MATS ALVESSON Lund University, Sweden and University of Queensland, AustraliaELIZABETH ARMSTRONG Edith Cowan University, AustraliaANDREW BENGRY-HOWELL University of Bath, UKSALLY CANDLIN Macquarie University, AustraliaMARIANNE GROVE DITLEVSEN Aarhus School of Business, Aarhus University, DenmarkEDITH ESCH University of Cambridge, UKALISON FERGUSON University of Newcastle, AustraliaARTHUR S FIRKINS Macquarie University, AustraliaCHRISTINE GRIFFIN University of Bath, UKCHRIS HACKLEY Royal Holloway, University of London, UK CHRISTOPHER HALL Durham University, UK RODNEY JONES City University of Hong Kong, Hong KongPETER KASTBERG Aarhus School of Business, Aarhus University, DenmarkTINA KOCH University of Surrey, UKDANA KOVARSKY University of Rhode Island, USAJUNE LUCHJENBROERS Bangor University, Wales, UKJENNIFER MACFARLANE University of Melbourne, AustraliaLENORE MANDERSON Monash University, AustraliaTIM MCNAMARA University of Melbourne, AustraliaWILLM MISTRAL University of Bath, UKLYNNE MORTENSEN Macquarie University, AustraliaANGELA SCARINO University of South Australia, AustraliaTHOMAS SCHEFFER Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, GermanySTEF SLEMBROUCK Gent University, Belgium LESLEY STIRLING University of Melbourne, AustraliaSTEFAN SVENINGSSON Lund University, SwedenISABELLE SZMIGIN University of Birmingham, UKIRENE WALSH Trinity College, Dublin, Republic of IrelandMICHAEL WALSHUniversity of Sydney, Australia

List of Contributors Introduction; C.N.Candlin& J.Crichton PART I: CHARACTERISATION IN THE CONTEXT OF LAW Constructing Vulnerability: The Experience of Children and Other Groups within Legal Discourse; J.Luchjenbroers& M.Aldridge Learning and Unlearning Being Guilty: On the Contingent Ascription of a Deficit Category; T.Scheffer PART II: RESPONSIBILITY IN THE CONTEXT OF SOCIAL WORK Categorizations of Child 'In Need' and Child 'In Need of Protection' and its Implications for the Formulation of 'Deficit' Parenting; C.Hall& S.Slembrouck 'She Is Not Coping': Risk Assessment and Claims of Deficit in Social Work; A.S.Firkins& C.N.Candlin PART III: IDENTITY IN THE CONTEXT OF HEALTH CARE Narrative, Identity and Care: Joint Problematisation in a Study of People Living With Dementia; J.Crichton& T.Koch 'We're Just Going to be Talking About You...': Identifying Deficits and Achieving Quality in Nurse Patient Discourse; S.Candlin 'You Don't Want to Look Like That for the Rest of Your Life': Contested Discourses of Loss in a Normative Societal Context; L.Stirling, L.Manderson& J.Macfarlane PART IV: RELATIONSHIPS IN THE CONTEXT OF MANAGEMENT Identity Work in Consultancy Projects: Ambiguity and Distribution of Credit and Blame; M.Alvesson& S.Sveningsson On the Discursive Construction of Knowledge Deficits in the 'Alter'; P.Kastberg& M.Grove Ditlevsen PART V: CAPACITY IN THE CONTEXT OF COMMUNICATION DISORDER The Discursive Construction of Language Disorders; D.Kovarsky& I.Walsh Public and Private Identity: The Co-Construction of Aphasia Through Discourse; E.Armstrong, A.Ferguson& L.Mortensen PART VI: RECOGNITION IN THE CONTEXT OF EDUCATIONAL DIVERSITY Epistemic Injustice and the Power to Define: Interviewing Cameroonian Primary School Teachers About Language Education; E.Esch Absence as Deficit in Assessing Intercultural Capability; A.Scarino PART VII: AGENCY IN THE CONTEXT OF MARKETING Discourses of Deficit and Deficits of Discourse: Computers, Disability and Mediated Action; R.Jones Young Peoples' Binge Drinking Constituted as a Deficit of Individual Self-Control in UK Government Alcohol Policy; C.Hackley, A.Bengry-Howell, C.Griffin, W.Mistral& I.Szmigin PART VIII: MEMBERSHIP IN THE CONTEXT OF INSTITUTIONAL APPRAISAL Measuring Deficit; T.McNamara A Neo-Colonial Farce? Discourses of Deficit in Australian Aboriginal Land Claim and Native Title Cases; M.Walsh Index