THEORETICAL PAPER Designing an Opinion for its (Local) Context Eric Hauser Published online: 24 November 2010 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 Abstract Four opinions about what Japanese people are like are analyzed. The four opinions are formulated, in English, by two students during a group discussion in an English class at a Japanese university. The analysis shows how the opinions are designed to fit different levels of the context, in particular the unfolding local sequential context. It is also shown how they may be understood as drawing on, though not determined by, the genre of Nihonjinron (theory of Japaneseness) as a resource. Keywords Conversation analysis Á Nihonjinron Á Opinion Á Formulation Á Symbolic capital Introduction In English, and perhaps in other languages, it is not unusual to speak of having an opinion, as if an opinion were a possession of the individual. Without wishing to deny that people may subscribe to certain ideas or beliefs, or that they may hold stable opinions about certain things, I would argue that a view of opinions as possessions is problematic, in at least two ways. First, the view of opinions as possessions obscures the ways in which the opinions an individual formulates are possibly connected to certain ideologies and/or discourses and/or myths, and thus how opinions are shaped by one or more (possibly competing) ideologies/ discourses/myths. Second, just as stories are designed for the local context within which they are told (Sacks 1995, e.g., Winter 1967, March 9; Fall 1967, Lecture 10; Spring 1968, April 24, May 29), the expression of an opinion is also designed for its local context (Bilmes 1986; Edwards 1997; Potter and Wetherell 1987). An opinion E. Hauser (&) The University of Electro-Communications, Building E1-614, 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu-Shi, Tokyo 182-8585, Japan e-mail: hauser@bunka.uec.ac.jp 123 Hum Stud (2010) 33:395–410 DOI 10.1007/s10746-010-9167-4