Organizing Participation in Interaction: Doing Participation Framework

Abstract

Goffman (1981) introduced the terms participation status and participation framework to differentiate how people involved in an interactional setting participate in that setting. In this article, I examine a particular work context in which participants in an interaction reorganize their participation such that, although remaining physically copresent, one of them makes or receives telephone calls to or from a non-copresent party. I show how this is a major site of body movement, including synchronous postural change (Kendon, 1990) before and after the call, and I examine the participants' vocal and nonvocal resources for entry into involvement with the phone call. Examination of these resources leads to a critical assessment of the concept of participation frameworks.