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The Saint-Pierre et Miquelon courtroom, seen from the back, close to the public entrance. In the foreground we see chairs for the public, then the lawyers' and plaintiffs' benches and finally the bar. On the left, in front, is the prosecutor's desk. The judges' desk is in the middle. On the right, facing the prosecutor's desk, is the video conference apparatus, permanently installed in the courtroom. 

The Saint-Pierre et Miquelon courtroom, seen from the back, close to the public entrance. In the foreground we see chairs for the public, then the lawyers' and plaintiffs' benches and finally the bar. On the left, in front, is the prosecutor's desk. The judges' desk is in the middle. On the right, facing the prosecutor's desk, is the video conference apparatus, permanently installed in the courtroom. 

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Article
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This article reports the results of an ethnographic study of court hearings in which participants are distributed across two distant sites, connected by videoconference. It focuses on the particulars of opening sequences in such mediated settings, and discusses in detail a “curious case,” in which the presiding judge did not open the hearing by the...

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Context 1
... In the second part of the turn (“you may be seated”), the judge prompts the recipients by granting them explicit permission to be seated. The whole turn therefore solves a practical problem that arises after the judge’s entrance. At that point he is faced with participants who are occupying the traditional French courtroom (see figure 1) – which defines social boundaries and a geography of participatory frames observable at a glance (Maynard, 1984) – and who are standing. He therefore has to get the hearing under way and the audience to sit down rapidly, in a way that will work irrespective of the number of individuals co-present. This is one of the purposes of uttering the conventional formula. ----------------------- Figure 1 about here ...
Context 2
... In the second part of the turn (“you may be seated”), the judge prompts the recipients by granting them explicit permission to be seated. The whole turn therefore solves a practical problem that arises after the judge’s entrance. At that point he is faced with participants who are occupying the traditional French courtroom (see figure 1) – which defines social boundaries and a geography of participatory frames observable at a glance (Maynard, 1984) – and who are standing. He therefore has to get the hearing under way and the audience to sit down rapidly, in a way that will work irrespective of the number of individuals co-present. This is one of the purposes of uttering the conventional formula. ----------------------- Figure 1 about here ...

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