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Such international AA meetings are interesting in that they are conducted in a manner that is acceptable to members from all of the aforementioned countries, as well as from Asia and other parts of Europe. These meetings probably reflect a common core of generally acceptable AA practices. Some of the members present entered AA while living overseas; others are long-standing AA members who joined local AA groups while working away from home; others are local to the area. As such, they represent many traditions of AA but belong to a common, highly specific and institutionalised speech community. This is apparent from how easily this disparate group of AA members recognised that they are participating in a common AA discourse.
However, though it is claimed by AA members that the way members talk in an AA meeting signals and constitutes the way they approach their alcoholism and themselves, it is not claimed that talk alone is sufficient to affect change. The relationship between discourse, thought, belief, and action is certainly explored through this study, but it is not claimed to have been even partially explained. Though AA members themselves place great reliance on talk (i.e., sharing), they make the distinction between ‘talking the talk and walking the walk’—talk alone is not enough to secure recovery and members insist that ‘working the steps’ as well as frequent participation in meetings is necessary for recovery. The Big Book claims that one cannot think one’s way to sobriety. The claim is being made here that one cannot talk one’s way there, either.
As for my familiarity with AA and qualification to write this book, all I can say is that over a period of many years I have attended countless meetings in a number of locations in the Far East, England, Ireland, the United States, and the West Indies. I became immersed in AA and its practices, observing a great deal of AA sharing. I also sought out their explicit knowledge of their behaviour and beliefs, taking the opportunity to ask members about what they do and why.