Intervenir à distance dans une opération chirurgicale: l’organisation interactive d’espaces de participation

Interaction plays a central role in medical practice not only during the consultation – a field largely studied by interactional analysis – but also in discussions among doctors and various experts taking care of the patient. These professional interactions are the locus where expertise is displayed, where knowledge about pathologies is collectively accomplished, where decisions are taken. This paper analyzes a specific setting where these interactions are particularly intense: the data were recorded during a surgical operation performed by a team, connected to an expert giving advice and to an audience watching the operation for didactical purposes and asking questions to the surgeon. This complex setting allows us to analyze the way in which a participation space is created for different voices contributing to the configuration of the event.