This article is a single case analysis of trouble talk taking place between teachers and care workers at a Swedish special residential home for boys and young men (aged 12–20). The topic of the talk is a potentially unwarranted solitary detention of a student. Using sequential- and Membership Categorisation analyses, we examine the participants’ methods for talking about the event as institutionally problematic while avoiding to blame the teacher responsible for the disciplinary action. Specifically, we demonstrate how the grounds for the confinement were initially disputed by the care workers and how an extended negotiation with the teachers eventually lead to a jointly acceptable account of the event. This involved recasting the event as a real-life experience that should afford the student important opportunities for socialisation into the social and institutional orders which inform daily life at the residential home. More generally, the analysis demonstrates how presumed knowledge of social and institutional structures and practices is mobilised and negotiated – through ‘categorial ordering work’ (Hester & Eglin, 1997) – in the service of coming to terms with the complex accountability arrangements of the special residential home.

本文是对瑞典一所男孩和年轻男子（12-20 岁）特殊住宅中教师和护理人员之间发生的麻烦谈话的单个案例分析。谈话的主题是对学生的潜在无根据的单独拘留。使用顺序和成员分类分析，我们检查参与者谈论该事件的方法存在制度问题，同时避免责怪负责纪律处分的老师。具体来说，我们展示了看护人员最初是如何对禁闭的理由提出异议的，以及与教师的长期谈判最终如何导致对事件的共同接受的描述。这涉及将事件重新塑造为现实生活中的体验，应该为学生提供重要的社会化机会，使其融入社会和制度秩序，从而为住宅的日常生活提供信息。更一般地说，该分析表明，假定的社会和制度结构和实践知识是如何通过“分类排序工作”（Hester & Eglin，1997）被调动和协商的，以适应特殊的复杂问责安排。住宅。