Disruption: Revising the Theory of the Interaction Order

• In Event: 3246 - Theories of Interaction Orders and Ordered Interactions

Abstract

Micro-sociological theory has traditionally stressed interactional pressures towards alignment—actors’ attempts to co-construct a shared definition of the situation. We argue that this model provides an insufficient account of the coordination of action and for explaining the emergence of intersubjectivity among actors. To complement the focus on alignment, we develop a theory of disruption—a misalignment of the dramaturgical structure of interaction that participants are forced to recognize in establishing expected lines of action. This article then develops a theory of the interaction order that takes the relationship between interactional alignment and disruption as a foundational challenge both for sociology and for actors in their everyday lives. We focus on the practical ways in which actors negotiate both interactional breaches and wider relational ruptures, and how they differentiate between disruptions-of relations, and disruptions-for them. By doing so, we connect the interaction order to a wider relational order, thus constructing a bridge between interactional sociology and the sociology of culture.

Authors

• Iddo Tavory, New York University

• Gary Alan Fine, Northwestern University