UNIT I: SOCIAL INTERACTION

a. Daily life encounter -- relationship between culture and communication, verbal and non-
verbal communication (face, body, gestures).
b. Theories -- Dramaturgy (Erving Goffman), Ethnomethodology (Garfinkel)
c. Virtual Interaction -- Interaction, relationships at a distance on a global/virtual platform,
building trust, etc.

A. DAILY LIFE ENCOUNTER -- RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CULTURE AND

COMMUNICATION, VERBAL AND NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION
(FACE, BODY, GESTURES).

When we think about communication, we most often focus on how we exchange information
using words. While verbal communication is important, humans relied on nonverbal
communication for thousands of years before we developed the capability to communicate
with words. Nonverbal communication is a process of generating meaning using behavior
other than words. Rather than thinking of nonverbal communication as the opposite of or as
separate from verbal interaction, it’s more accurate to view them as operating side by side—
as part of the same system.

The content and composition of verbal and nonverbal communication also differs. In terms of
content, nonverbal communication tends to do the work of communicating emotions more
than verbal. In terms of composition, although there are rules of grammar that structure our
verbal communication, no such official guides govern our use of nonverbal signals.
Likewise, there aren’t dictionaries and thesauruses of nonverbal communication like there are
with verbal symbols. Finally, whereas we humans are unique in our capacity to abstract and
transcend space and time using verbal symbols, we are not the only creatures that engage in
nonverbal communication.

Nonverbal communication, on the other hand, can be taken in by all five of our senses. Since
most of our communication relies on visual and auditory channels, those will be the focus of
this chapter. But we can also receive messages and generate meaning through touch, taste,

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and smell. Touch is an especially powerful form of nonverbal communication, but we will
not get into taste and smell, which have not received as much scholarly attention in relation
to nonverbal communication as the other senses.

Social interaction requires numerous forms of non-verbal communication- the exchange of

information and meaning through facial expressions, gestures and movement of the body.
Non-verbal communication is sometimes referred to as ‘body language’, but this is
misleading because we characteristically use such non-verbal cues to eliminate or expand on
what is said with words. The process of non-verbal communication, communication using
body movements, gestures and facial expressions rather than speech.

Virtually any part of the body can be used to generate body language, that is, to convey
information to others. Facial expressions form the most significant element of non-verbal
communication. Smiling and other facial gestures express basic emotions such as pleasure,
surprise and anger the world over. Further, people project particular shades of meaning with
their faces. We distinguish, for example, between the deliberate smile, a spontaneous smile
of joy at seeing a friend, a pained smile of embarrassment and a full, unrestrained smile of
self-satisfaction.

Eye contact is another crucial element of non-verbal communication. Generally, we use eye
contact to initiate social interaction. Someone across the room ‘catches our eye’, for example,
sparking a conversation. Avoiding the eyes of another, on the other hand, discourages
communication. Hands, too, speak for us. Common hand gestures in our culture convey,
among other things, an insult, a request for a lift, an invitation for someone to join us, or a
demand that others stop in their tracks. Gestures also supplement spoken words. Pointing in a
menacing way at someone, for example, intensifies a word of warning, just as shrugging the
shoulders adds an air of indifference to the phrase ‘I don’t know’, and rapidly waving the
arms lends urgency to the single word ‘Hurry!’

But, as any actor knows, the ‘perfect performance’ is an elusive goal. In everyday
performances, some element of body language often contradicts our intended meaning. A
teenage boy offers an explanation for getting home late, for example, but his mother doubts
his words because he avoids looking her in the eye. The movie star on a television talk show

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claims that her recent flop at the box office is ‘no big deal’, but the nervous swing of her leg
belies her casual denial. In practical terms, carefully observing non-verbal communication
(most of which is not easily controlled) provides clues to deception, in much the same way
that a lie detector records tell-tale changes in breathing, pulse rate, perspiration and blood
pressure.

Yet detecting lies is difficult, because no single bodily gesture directly indicates deceit in the
way that, say, a smile indicates pleasure. Even so, because any performance involves so
many expressions, few people can confidently lie without allowing some piece of
contradictory information to slip through, arousing the suspicions of a careful observer.
Therefore, the key to detecting deceit is to scan the whole performance with an eye for
inconsistencies and discrepancies.

One major aspect of non-verbal communication is the facial expression of emotion. Although
the facial expression of emotions seems to be partly innate, individual and cultural factors
influence what exact form facial movements take and the contexts in which they are deemed
appropriate. How people smile, for example, the precise movement of the lips and other
facial muscles, and how fleeting the smile is all vary between cultures.

Like facial expressions, gestures and body postures are continually used to fill out utterances,
as well as conveying meaning when nothing is actually said. All three can be used to joke,
show irony or show skepticism.

The non-verbal impressions that we convey often inadvertently indicate that what we say is
not quite what we mean. Blushing is perhaps the most obvious example of how physical
indicators can contradict our stated meanings. But there are many more subtle signs that can
be picked up by other people. Sweating, fidgeting, staring or shifting eyes, and facial
expressions held for a long time could indicate that a person is being deceptive. Thus, we use
facial expressions and bodily gestures of other people to add to what they communicate
verbally and to check how far they are sincere in what they say and whether we can trust
them.

FACE- FACIAL EXPRESSIONS

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Our faces are the most expressive part of our bodies. Think of how photos are often intended to
capture a particular expression “in a flash” to preserve for later viewing. Even though a photo is
a snapshot in time, we can still interpret much meaning from a human face caught in a moment
of expression, and basic facial expressions are recognizable by humans all over the world. Much
research has supported the universality of a core group of facial expressions: happiness, sadness,
fear, anger, and disgust. The first four are especially identifiable across cultures. However, the
triggers for these expressions and the cultural and social norms that influence their displays are
still culturally diverse. If you’ve spent much time with babies you know that they’re capable of
expressing all these emotions. Getting to see the pure and innate expressions of joy and surprise
on a baby’s face is what makes playing peek-a-boo so entertaining for adults. As we get older,
we learn and begin to follow display rules for facial expressions and other signals of emotion and
also learn to better control our emotional expression based on the norms of our culture.

Smiles are powerful communicative signals and, as you’ll recall, are a key immediacy behavior.
Although facial expressions are typically viewed as innate and several are universally
recognizable, they are not always connected to an emotional or internal biological stimulus; they
can actually serve a more social purpose. For example, most of the smiles we produce are
primarily made for others and are not just an involuntary reflection of an internal emotional state.
These social smiles, however, are slightly but perceptibly different from more genuine smiles.
People generally perceive smiles as more genuine when the other person smiles “with their
eyes.” This particular type of smile is difficult if not impossible to fake because the muscles
around the eye that are activated when we spontaneously or genuinely smile are not under our
voluntary control. It is the involuntary and spontaneous contraction of these muscles that moves
the skin around our cheeks, eyes, and nose to create a smile that’s distinct from a fake or polite
smile. People are able to distinguish the difference between these smiles, which is why
photographers often engage in cheesy joking with adults or use props with children to induce a
genuine smile before they snap a picture.

Facial expressions help set the emotional tone for a speech. In order to set a positive tone before
you start speaking, briefly look at the audience and smile to communicate friendliness, openness,
and confidence. Beyond your opening and welcoming facial expressions, facial expressions
communicate a range of emotions and can be used to infer personality traits and make judgments

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about a speaker’s credibility and competence. Facial expressions can communicate that a speaker
is tired, excited, angry, confused, frustrated, sad, confident, smug, shy, or bored. Even if you
aren’t bored, for example, a slack face with little animation may lead an audience to think that
you are bored with your own speech, which isn’t likely to motivate them to be interested. So
make sure your facial expressions are communicating an emotion, mood, or personality trait that
you think your audience will view favorably, and that will help you achieve your speech goals.
Also make sure your facial expressions match the content of your speech. When delivering
something light-hearted or humorous, a smile, bright eyes, and slightly raised eyebrows will
nonverbally enhance your verbal message. When delivering something serious or somber, a
furrowed brow, a tighter mouth, and even a slight head nod can enhance that message. If your
facial expressions and speech content are not consistent, your audience could become confused
by the mixed messages, which could lead them to question your honesty and credibility.

BODY-HEAD MOVEMENTS AND POSTURE

Head movements and posture together because they are often both used to acknowledge others
and communicate interest or attentiveness. In terms of head movements, a head nod is a
universal sign of acknowledgement in cultures where the formal bow is no longer used as a
greeting. In these cases, the head nod essentially serves as an abbreviated bow. An innate and
universal head movement is the headshake back and forth to signal “no.” This nonverbal signal
begins at birth, even before a baby has the ability to know that it has a corresponding meaning.
Babies shake their head from side to side to reject their mother’s breast and later shake their head
to reject attempts to spoon-feed. This biologically based movement then sticks with us to be a
recognizable signal for “no.” We also move our head to indicate interest. For example, a head up
typically indicates an engaged or neutral attitude, a head tilt indicates interest and is an innate
submission gesture that exposes the neck and subconsciously makes people feel more trusting of
us, and a head down signals a negative or aggressive attitude.

There are four general human postures: standing, sitting, squatting, and lying down. Within each
of these postures there are many variations, and when combined with particular gestures or other
nonverbal cues they can express many different meanings. Most of our communication occurs
while we are standing or sitting. One interesting standing posture involves putting our hands on

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our hips and is a nonverbal cue that we use subconsciously to make us look bigger and show
assertiveness. When the elbows are pointed out, this prevents others from getting past us as
easily and is a sign of attempted dominance or a gesture that says we’re ready for action. In
terms of sitting, leaning back shows informality and indifference, straddling a chair is a sign of
dominance (but also some insecurity because the person is protecting the vulnerable front part of
his or her body), and leaning forward shows interest and attentiveness.

GESTURES

There are three main types of gestures: adaptors, emblems, and illustrators. Adaptors are
touching behaviors and movements that indicate internal states typically related to arousal or
anxiety. Adaptors can be targeted toward the self, objects, or others. In regular social situations,
adaptors result from uneasiness, anxiety, or a general sense that we are not in control of our
surroundings. Many of us subconsciously click pens, shake our legs, or engage in other adaptors
during classes, meetings, or while waiting as a way to do something with our excess energy.
Public speaking students who watch video recordings of their speeches notice nonverbal adaptors
that they didn’t know they used. In public speaking situations, people most commonly use self-
or object- focused adaptors. Common self-touching behaviors like scratching, twirling hair, or
fidgeting with fingers or hands are considered self-adaptors. Some self- adaptors manifest
internally, as coughs or throat-clearing sounds. My personal weakness is object adaptors.
Specifically, I subconsciously gravitate toward metallic objects like paper clips or staples
holding my notes together and catch myself bending them or fidgeting with them while I’m
speaking. Other people play with dry-erase markers, their note cards, the change in their pockets,
or the lectern while speaking. Use of object adaptors can also signal boredom as people play with
the straw in their drink or peel the label off a bottle of beer. Smartphones have become common
object adaptors, as people can fiddle with their phones to help ease anxiety. Finally, as noted,
other adaptors are more common in social situations than in public speaking situations given the
speaker’s distance from audience members. Other adaptors involve adjusting or grooming others,
similar to how primates like chimpanzees pick things off each other. It would definitely be
strange for a speaker to approach an audience member and pick lint off his or her sweater, fix a
crooked tie, tuck a tag in, or pat down a flyaway hair in the middle of a speech.

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Emblems are gestures that have a specific agreed-on meaning. These are still different from the
signs used by hearing-impaired people or others who communicate using American Sign
Language (ASL). Even though they have a generally agreed-on meaning, they are not part of a
formal sign system like ASL that is explicitly taught to a group of people. A hitchhiker’s raised
thumb, the “OK” sign with thumb and index finger connected in a circle with the other three
fingers sticking up, and the raised middle finger are all examples of emblems that have an
agreed-on meaning or meanings with a culture. Emblems can be still or in motion; for example,
circling the index finger around at the side of your head says “He or she is crazy,” or rolling your
hands over and over in front of you says “Move on.”

Just as we can trace the history of a word, or its etymology, we can also trace some nonverbal
signals, especially emblems, to their origins. Holding up the index and middle fingers in a “V”
shape with the palm facing in is an insult gesture in Britain that basically means “up yours.” This
gesture dates back centuries to the period in which the primary weapon of war was the bow and
arrow. When archers were captured, their enemies would often cut off these two fingers, which
was seen as the ultimate insult and worse than being executed since the archer could no longer
shoot his bow and arrow. So holding up the two fingers was a provoking gesture used by archers
to show their enemies that they still had their shooting fingers.

Illustrators are the most common type of gesture and are used to illustrate the verbal message
they accompany. For example, you might use hand gestures to indicate the size or shape of an
object. Unlike emblems, illustrators do not typically have meaning on their own and are used
more subconsciously than emblems. These largely involuntary and seemingly natural gestures
flow from us as we speak but vary in terms of intensity and frequency based on context.
Although we are never explicitly taught how to use illustrative gestures, we do it automatically.
Think about how you still gesture when having an animated conversation on the phone even
though the other person can’t see you.

RELATION BETWEEN CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION-

As with other aspects of communication, norms for nonverbal communication vary from country
to country and also among cultures within a particular country. We’ve already learned that some

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nonverbal communication behaviors appear to be somewhat innate because they are universally
recognized. Two such universal signals are the “eyebrow flash” of recognition when we see
someone we know and the open hand and the palm up gesture that signals a person would like
something or needs help.

Smiling is also a universal nonverbal behavior, but the triggers that lead a person to smile vary
from culture to culture. The expansion of media, particularly from the United States and other
Western countries around the world, is leading to more nonverbal similarities among cultures,
but the biggest cultural differences in nonverbal communication occur within the categories of
eye contact, touch, and personal space. Next, we will overview some interesting and instructive
differences within several channels of nonverbal communication that we have discussed so far.
As you read, remember that these are not absolute, in that nonverbal communication like other
forms of communication is influenced by context and varies among individuals within a
particular cultural group as well.

Kinesics

Cultural variations in the way we gesture, use head movements, and use eye contact fall under
the nonverbal category of kinesics.

Gestures

Remember that emblems are gestures that correspond to a word and an agreed- on meaning.
When we use our fingers to count, we are using emblematic gestures, but even our way of
counting varies among cultures. One could fairly accurately separate British people and US
Americans from French, Greek, and German people based on a simple and common gesture.
Let’s try this exercise: First, display with your hand the number five. Second, keeping the five
displayed, change it to a two. If you are from the United States or Britain you are probably
holding up your index finder and your middle finger. If you are from another European country
you are probably holding up your thumb and index finger. While Americans and Brits start
counting on their index finger and end with five on their thumb, other Europeans start counting
on their thumb and end with five on their pinky finger.

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How you use your hands can also get you into trouble if you’re unaware of cultural differences.
For example, the “thumbs up” gesture, as we just learned, can mean “one” in mainland Europe,
but it also means “up yours” in Greece (when thrust forward) and is recognized as a signal for
hitchhiking or “good,” “good job / way to go,” or “OK” in many other cultures. Two hands up
with the palms out can signal “ten” in many Western countries and is recognized as a signal for
“I’m telling the truth” or “I surrender” in many cultures. The same gesture, however, means “up
yours twice” in Greece. So using that familiar gesture to say you surrender might actually end up
escalating rather than ending a conflict if used in Greece.

Head Movements

Bowing is a nonverbal greeting ritual that is more common in Asian cultures than Western
cultures, but the head nod, which is a common form of acknowledgement in many cultures, is
actually an abbreviated bow. Japan is considered a noncontact culture, which refers to cultural
groups in which people stand farther apart while talking, make less eye contact, and touch less
during regular interactions. Because of this, bowing is the preferred nonverbal greeting over
handshaking. Bows vary based on status, with higher status people bowing the least. For
example, in order to indicate the status of another person, a Japanese businessperson may bow
deeply. An interesting ritual associated with the bow is the exchange of business cards when
greeting someone in Japan. This exchange allows each person to view the other’s occupation and
title, which provides useful information about the other’s status and determines who should bow
more. Since bowing gives each person a good view of the other person’s shoes, it is very
important to have clean shoes that are in good condition, since they play an important part of
initial impression formation.

Eye Contact

In some cultures, avoiding eye contact is considered a sign of respect. Such eye contact aversion,
however, could be seen as a sign that the other person is being deceptive, is bored, or is being
rude. Some Native American nations teach that people should avoid eye contact with elders,
teachers, and other people with status. This can create issues in classrooms when teachers are
unaware of this norm and may consider a Native American student’s lack of eye contact as a sign

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of insubordination or lack of engagement, which could lead to false impressions that the student
is a troublemaker or less intelligent.

Haptics

As we’ve learned, touch behaviors are important during initial interactions, and cultural
differences in these nonverbal practices can lead to miscommunication and misunderstanding.
Shaking hands as a typical touch greeting, for example, varies among cultures. It is customary
for British, Australian, German, and US American colleagues to shake hands when seeing each
other for the first time and then to shake again when departing company. In the United States, the
colleagues do not normally shake hands again if they see each other again later in the day, but
European colleagues may shake hands with each other several times a day. Once a certain level
of familiarity and closeness is reached, US American colleagues will likely not even shake hands
daily unless engaging in some more formal interaction, but many European colleagues will
continue to shake each time they see each other. Some French businesspeople have been known
to spend up to thirty minutes a day shaking hands. The squeezes and up-and-down shakes used
during handshakes are often called “pumps,” and the number of pumps used in a handshake also
varies among cultures. Although the Germans and French shake hands more often throughout the
day, they typically only give one or two pumps and then hold the shake for a couple seconds
before letting go. Brits tend to give three to five pumps, and US Americans tend to give five to
seven pumps. This can be humorous to watch at a multinational business event, but it also affects
the initial impressions people make of each other. A US American may think that a German is
being unfriendly or distant because of his or her single hand pump, while a German may think
that a US American is overdoing it with seven.

Contact cultures are cultural groups in which people stand closer together, engage in more eye
contact, touch more frequently, and speak more loudly. Italians are especially known for their
vibrant nonverbal communication in terms of gestures, volume, eye contact, and touching, which
not surprisingly places them in the contact culture category. Italians use hand motions and
touching to regulate the flow of conversations, and when non-Italians don’t know how to mirror
an Italian’s nonverbals they may not get to contribute much to the conversation, which likely
feeds into the stereotype of Italians as domineering in conversations or over expressive. For

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example, Italians speak with their hands raised as a way to signal that they are holding the floor
for their conversational turn. If their conversational partner starts to raise his or her hands, the
Italian might gently touch the other person and keep on talking. Conversational partners often
interpret this as a sign of affection or of the Italian’s passion for what he or she is saying. In fact,
it is a touch intended to keep the partner from raising his or her hands, which would signal that
the Italian’s conversational turn is over and the other person now has the floor. It has been
suggested that in order to get a conversational turn, you must physically grab their hands in
midair and pull them down. While this would seem very invasive and rude to northern Europeans
and US Americans, it is a nonverbal norm in Italian culture and may be the only way to get to
contribute to a conversation.

Vocalics

The volume at which we speak is influenced by specific contexts and is more generally
influenced by our culture. In European countries like France, England, Sweden, and Germany, it
is not uncommon to find restaurants that have small tables very close together. In many cases,
two people dining together may be sitting at a table that is actually touching the table of another
pair of diners. Most US Americans would consider this a violation of personal space, and
Europeans often perceive US Americans to be rude in such contexts because they do not control
the volume of their conversations more. Since personal space is usually more plentiful in the
United States, Americans are used to speaking at a level that is considered loud to many cultures
that are used to less personal space. I have personally experienced both sides of this while
traveling abroad. One time, my friends and I were asked to leave a restaurant in Sweden because
another table complained that we were being loud. Another time, at a restaurant in Argentina, I
was disturbed, as were the others dining around me, by a “loud” table of Americans seated on the
other side of the dining area. In this case, even though we were also Americans, we were
bothered by the lack of cultural awareness being exhibited by the other Americans at the
restaurant. These examples show how proxemics and vocalics can combine to make for
troubling, but hopefully informative, nonverbal intercultural encounters.

Proxemics

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Cultural norms for personal space vary much more than some other nonverbal communication
channels such as facial expressions, which have more universal similarity and recognizability.
We’ve already learned that contact and noncontact cultures differ in their preferences for touch
and interpersonal distance. Countries in South America and southern Europe exhibit
characteristics of contact cultures, while countries in northern Europe and Southeast Asia exhibit
noncontact cultural characteristics. Because of the different comfort levels with personal space, a
Guatemalan and a Canadian might come away with differing impressions of each other because
of proxemic differences. The Guatemalan may feel the Canadian is standoffish, and the Canadian
may feel the Guatemalan is pushy or aggressive.

Chronemics

The United States and many northern and western European countries have
a monochromic orientation to time, meaning time is seen as a commodity that can be budgeted,
saved, spent, and wasted. Events are to be scheduled in advance and have set beginning and
ending times. Countries like Spain and Mexico have
a polychronic orientation to time. Appointments may be scheduled at overlapping times, making
an “orderly” schedule impossible. People may also miss appointments or deadlines without
offering an apology, which would be considered very rude by a person with a monochronic
orientation to time. People from cultures with a monochronic orientation to time are frustrated
when people from polychromic cultures cancel appointments or close businesses for family
obligations. Conversely, people from polychromic cultures feel that US Americans, for example,
follow their schedules at the expense of personal relationships.

B. THEORIES -- DRAMATURGY (ERVING GOFFMAN),

ETHNOMETHODOLOGY (GARFINKEL)

DRAMATURGY –ERVING GOFFMAN

Erving Goffman (1922–1982), was the twentieth century’s leading micro sociologist. He studied
what he called the interaction order – what we do in the immediate presence of others. One of the
major ways he enhanced our understanding of everyday life was by noting that people routinely

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behave much like actors performing on a stage. By imagining ourselves as directors scrutinising
what goes on in some situational ‘theatre’, we engage in what Goffman called dramaturgical
analysis, the investigation of social interaction in terms borrowed from theatrical performance.
Everyday social life becomes theatre.

Dramaturgical analysis offers a fresh look at two now familiar concepts. In theatrical terms,
people come toplay parts and roles as if in a play, and scripts emerge to supply dialogue and
action for each of the characters. Moreover, in any setting, a person is both actor and audience.
Goffman described each individual’s ‘performance’ as the presentation of self, an individual’s
effort to create specific impressions in the minds of others. Presentation of self, or impression
management, contains several distinctive elements. We can see daily life as a series of stagecraft
rules.

Performances

As we present ourselves in everyday situations, we convey information – consciously and

unconsciously –to others. An individual’s performance includes dress (costume), any objects
carried along (props) and tone of voice and particular gestures (manner). In addition, people craft
their performance according to the setting(stage). We may joke loudly in the street, for example,
but assume a more reverent manner upon entering a church. In addition, individuals design
settings, such as a home or office, to enhance a performance by invoking the desired reactions in
others.

Consider, for example, how a doctor’s surgery conveys information to an audience of patients.
Doctors enjoy prestige and power, a fact immediately grasped by patients upon entering the
surgery or health centre. First, the doctor is nowhere to be seen. Instead, in what Goffman
describes as the ‘front region’ of the setting, the patient encounters a receptionist who functions
as a gatekeeper, deciding if and when the patient can meet the doctor. A simple survey of the
waiting room, with patients (often impatiently) awaiting their call to the inner sanctum, leaves
little doubt that the medical team controls events.

The doctor’s private examination room or surgery constitutes the ‘back region’ of the setting.
Here the patient confronts a wide range of props, such as medical books and framed degrees,
which together reinforce the impression that the doctor has the specialised knowledge necessary

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to be in charge. In the surgery the doctor may remain seated behind a desk – the larger and
grander the desk, the greater the statement of power – while the patient is provided with only a
chair.

The doctor’s appearance and manner convey still more information. The common hospital
doctor’s costume of white lab coat may have the practical function of keeping clothes from
becoming soiled, but its social function is to let others know at a glance the doctor’s status. A
stethoscope around the neck or a black medical bag in hand has the same purpose. A doctor’s
highly technical terminology – frequently mystifying – also emphasises the hierarchy in the
situation. The use of the title ‘Doctor’ by patients who, in turn, are frequently addressed only by
their first names, also underscores the physician’s dominant position. The overall message of a
doctor’s performance is clear: ‘I will help you only if you allow me to take charge.’

ETHNOMETHODOLOGY

Rather than assume that reality is something ‘out there’, the symbolic-interaction paradigm
posits that reality is created by people in everyday encounters. But how, exactly, do we define
reality for ourselves? What is the logic through which we make sense of everyday life?
Answering this question is the objective of other theoretical approaches: ethnomethodology and
conversational analysis.

The term itself has two parts: the Greek ethno refers to people and how they understand their
surroundings; ‘methodology’ designates a set of methods or principles. Combining them makes
ethnomethodology, the study of the way people make sense of their everyday lives.
Ethnomethodology is largely the creation of the Californian-based sociologist Harold Garfinkel
(1967), who challenged the then dominant view of society as a broad, abstract ‘system’.
Garfinkel wanted to explore how we make sense of countless familiar situations by looking at
the practical reasoning we employ in everyday situations. On the surface, we engage in
intentional speech or action; but these efforts rest on deeper assumptions about the world that we
usually take for granted.

Think, for a moment, about what we assume in asking someone the simple question, ‘How are
you?’ Do we mean physically? Mentally? Spiritually? Financially? Are we even looking for an
answer, or are we ‘just being polite’?

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Ethnomethodology, then, delves into the sense making process in any social encounter. Because
so much of this process is ingrained, Garfinkel argues that one effective way to expose how we
make sense of events is purposely to break the rules. Deliberately ignoring conventional rules
and observing how people respond, he points out, allows us to tease out how people build a
reality. Thus, Garfinkel (1967) directed his students to refuse to ‘play the game’ in a wide range
of situations. Some students living with their parents started acting as if they were boarders
rather than children. Others entered stores and insisted on bargaining for items. Some recruited
people intosimple games (like tic-tac-toe or noughts-and-crosses) only to intentionally flout the
rules. Still others initiated conversations while slowly moving closer and closer to the other
person. It was a matter of making the everyday ‘strange’, of ‘breaching’ common-sense
assumptions; and this was done to show just how everyday life depends upon our ongoing sense
of ‘trust’ with each other. Life is fragile, yet it has a rule- and game-like quality which human
beings daily recognise, produce and reproduce.

Conversational analysis

Taking this one step further, some sociologists argue that the guiding feature of everyday
interaction is language (see Chapter 5). To understand society and the everyday life through
which it is made, we need to look at language and the rules through which we speak. In a sense,
societies are languages.

Conversational analysis provides a rigorous set of techniques to technically record and then
analyse what happens in everyday speech. It sets about listening to and observing language,
recording it, transcribing it, often videotaping it. Everywhere people are talking, conversational
analysts are interested in understanding their talk. Thus they look everywhere – at courts,
hospitals, street conversations, political speeches, suicide notes, statistic making, children’s play,
television – to see how people construct their daily talk. They see this talk and conversation as a
topic to investigate in its own right: they are not interested in what people actually say in terms
of its contents (which they call resource). Rather, they are interested in its forms and rules, which
they see as the underlying feature of social interaction. Human realities are accomplished
through talk.

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As one example, conversational analysts are concerned with the ‘sequencing’ of talk: sentences
generally follow on from one another. ‘Normal’ interaction depends upon this, and everyday life
can only really be accomplished if people are willing to follow certain ‘sequencing rules’. One of
these, for instance, is ‘turn taking’: people bide their time, and take turns at being hearers and
tellers to talk to others. Another is the ‘adjacency pair’ through which most greetings, openings
and closings of conversations have an unstated rule that as one speaks a line, so another makes
the most appropriate conventional response to it. Thus, for example, a standard opening line may
be: how are you? And this requires a response, usually of the form: very well, thank you.
Everyday life is in this way deeply regulated by social rules.

C. VIRTUAL INTERACTION -- INTERACTION, RELATIONSHIPS AT A

DISTANCE ON A GLOBAL/VIRTUAL PLATFORM, BUILDING TRUST, ETC.

In modern societies we constantly interact with others whom we may never see or meet. Almost
all of our everyday transactions, such as buying groceries or making bank deposit, bring us into
contact- but indirect contact- with people who may live thousands of miles away.

Now that email, instant messaging, online communities and chat rooms have become facts of life
for many people in industrialized countries. Sceptics argue that indirect communication through
email and internet contains a wealth of problems not found in face-to-face social interaction. As
Katz et al. put it : To type is not to be human, to be in cyberspace is not to be real. In particular,
supporters of this view argue that computer mediated communication technology is too limited
to prevent users hiding behind false identities. This also allows trickery, lechery, manipulation,
emotional swindles and so on.

Yet the defenders of new technology argue that there are ways in which good or bad reputations
can be built and trust can be established, so reducing the risk of online communication. One of
the best known and much discussed, trust systems in an online community is used by the auction
site eBay.

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Furthermore Internet enthusiasts argue that online communication has many inherent advantages
that cannot be claimed by more traditional forms of interaction such as the telephone and face-to-
face meetings. The human voice, for example , may be far superior in terms of expressing
emotion and subtleties of meaning, but it can also convey information about the speaker’s
disadvantage. Electronic communication, it is noted, masks all these identifying markers and
ensures that attention focuses strictly on the content of the message. This can be a great
advantage for women or other traditionally disadvantaged groups whose opinion are sometimes
devalued in other settings. Electronic interaction is often presented as liberating and
empowering, since people can create their own online identities and speak more freely than they
would elsewhere.

Internet sceptics have also argued that indirect, online communication encourages isolation and
prevents real friendships from forming, but this does not seem to reflect the reality. A survey of
Internet users carried out between 1995 and 2000 showed that, far from increasing social
isolation, internet usage is associated with significant and increased online and offline social
interactions. The survey found that internet users tend to communicate with others through other
media-especially by the telephone- more than non-users do, meet face-to-face with friends more
than non-users and interact with others more in general.

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