Interaction

Abstract

Abstract Interaction is one of the foundational sociological concepts. It is often discussed together with organization and society and thereby defined as the “microlevel” of sociological analysis. Unfortunately it sometimes is seen as less important for sociological research than the study of the “meso‐” (organization) and “macrolevel” (society) of analysis. Those developing grand sociological theories like Talcott Parsons and Niklas Luhmann, maybe not unsurprisingly, therefore devoted more space and time to the development of theories of society while neglecting the development of theories and concepts of interaction. However, beginning with Georg Simmel's studies in Germany in the late nineteenth century sociology has produced a substantial and diverse body of theories and research with interaction at its center, including studies conducted by the Chicago School of Sociology, and symbolic interactionism and the Iowa School, the analyses of social occasions by Erving Goffman, studies in ethnomethodology and conversation analysis and more recently research subjecting social situations to multimodal analyses. These studies demonstrate that interaction is key to all forms of social relationship. They elaborate on the importance of our understanding of interaction for policy development as well as for the design and deployment of novel technologies in complex work settings.