Interaction Ritual Chain Theory Research Articles

Cannot wait to share? An exploration of tourists’ sharing behavior during the ‘traveling to the site’ stage

ABSTRACT Although tourists’ social media sharing behavior has been well documented in existing literature, few studies have examined tourists’ early-stage sharing behaviors and their impact on the sharers. As one of the earliest stages of the tourism experience, tourists’ sharing behavior during the ‘traveling to the site’ stage undoubtedly affects their subsequent travel experience. Therefore, a thorough understanding of tourists’ social media sharing motivations while ‘traveling to the site’ is necessary, as is the impact of such sharing behavior on the sharers’ subsequent tourism stages. This study identified two categories of motivations for sharing behavior and three ways in which sharing behavior affects the sharer's subsequent travel experience using qualitative research methods and the interaction ritual chain theory.

Experiential value of volunteer tourism: The perspective of interaction ritual chains

Volunteer tourism is an increasingly popular activity in different parts of the world. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the experiential value of Chinese college students in volunteer tourism. Participant reports were used for qualitative research to explore the experiential value of 57 Chinese students participating in the AIESEC Global Volunteer Program. Research results based on the Interaction Ritual Chains Theory show that “role identification,” “authenticity”, and “interactivity” are the main experiences of interactive rituals. This research distinguishes five dimensions of volunteer tourism experiential value: emotional value, conversational value, cognitive value, esthetic value, and symbolic value.

Digital technology and increasing engagement among students with disabilities: Interaction rituals and digital capital

As the number of students identified with disabilities grows, schools moving towards inclusive classrooms are concerned with ensuring engagement of all students. Research has shown that digital technology provides support for students with disabilities so that they can participate in classroom activities. This research has been largely quantitative with a focus on student participation and improving academic outcomes. Moreover, the qualitative research has defined engagement as increasing attention on learning tasks. However, we do not know how and whether digital technology can generate interactions among these students and their peers or their teachers. This paper uses qualitative data from six Ontario, Canada school boards, including 27 classroom observations and interviews with teachers, to explore the role that digital technologies (i.e. robotics, smartboards, iPads) play in facilitating greater engagement among students with disabilities. Drawing on Randall Collins’ interaction ritual chains theory, and Pierre Bourdieu's theory of cultural capital, we posit that digital technologies can alter classroom routines and rituals that can lead to greater engagement. In particular, this study confirms that digital technologies can play a major role in boosting engagement through support and greater access to classroom content and learning processes. We add to the literature by postulating that digital technologies enhance classroom rituals and interactions by giving students a literal and figurative voice, and through changes in interactions among students with disabilities, their peers, and teachers. Additionally, students with disabilities who are adept at using digital technology can generate a form of capital that displays a type of credibility with their teachers and peers.

Crisis, Solidarity, and Ritual in Religiously Diverse Settings: A Unitarian Universalist Case Study

How can religious ritual foster solidarity in religiously diverse communities in times of crisis? This question is crucial in social contexts characterized by increasing religious and nonreligious diversity and ongoing intersecting crises associated with violence, inequality, and climate change. Solidarity is necessary both as an immediate response to crisis and to the pursuit of long-term solutions that address underlying causes. Situated in the literature on disaster ritual, this study draws on Randall Collins’ sociological theory of interaction ritual chains to analyze the weekly ritual of sharing “Joys and Concerns” followed by a “Meditation” practiced by a theistically diverse Unitarian Universalist congregation. Anchored in one year of ethnographic research in this community, it concludes that the trusted structures, shared stories, and embodied symbols associated with this practice contain the ritual ingredients necessary to produce social solidarity in response to personal and societal crises and may be a model to apply in other religiously diverse contexts.

Gruppensolidarität zwischen Rationalität und Ritualität

Abstract Group solidarity requires that members are committed to solidarity norms. Addressing the question of how such commitments are socially (re)produced, the starting point of this article is Lindenberg's Theory of Social Rationality (TSR) and its notion of solidarity frames. These frames consist of solidarity as a goal of action and associated stocks of knowledge and moral feelings. TSR makes it clear that solidarity frames are fragile and precarious. They must be regularly recharged with motivational energy and symbols in order to prevail over compet-ing motives. However, TSR cannot satisfactorily explain how this works. This shortcoming is addressed by Collins' Interaction Ritual Chains Theory (IRCT). It is argued that solidarity frames are a potential outcome of interaction rituals and it is clarified under which conditions this can be expected. A distinction is made between three essential types of rituals: identity rituals, governance rituals, and exchange rituals.

COVID-19 prevention in hotels: Ritualized host-guest interactions

As COVID-19 prevention efforts have become normalized, conflicts between guests and hotel staff, who must adhere to government protocols, can have a serious impact on host-guest interactions. Drawing on interaction ritual chain theory, this research explores the ritualized mechanism of host-guest interactions during the pandemic from the perspectives of staff and guests. By combining video ethnography and interviews, this study identifies the ritual ingredients, processes, outcomes, and collective symbols of COVID-19 prevention measures. Based on the attitudes and performance paths of staff and guests, the interaction chain may become longer or shorter, and result in guests becoming “insiders” or “outsiders” and leaving the interaction space. An integrated model of host-guest interactions based on interaction ritual theory is proposed.

Transformative tourism: Tourists' drawings, symbols, and narratives of change

Using the theoretical lens of Interaction Ritual Chains theory, the study investigates how transformative tourism narratives are symbolized by transformed tourists. Transformative tourism focuses on pushing tourists out of their comfort zone, encouraging inclusive worldviews, promoting cross-cultural understanding and social empowerment. A creative qualitative multi-method approach is utilized where transformed tourists draw, answer sentence completions, participate in in-depth interviews, and interpret the symbols associated with their transformative narratives. Those narratives can be used by practitioners to market the unique nature of transformative tourism by using symbols that resonate with prospective transformative tourists and aligns with their desire to travel in a way that positively benefits destination residents.

Revelling in Interaction Rituals：The Impact of Interaction Ritual Chains of Live-Broadcast E-Commerce on Users&Apos; Long-Term Viewership

In recent years, the live-broadcast e-commerce has been developed rapidly, attracting a large number of users. However, the ultimate success of the platforms depend on users’ continued adoption behavior. Based on meaning transfer model and interaction ritual chain theory, this study develops a theoretical framework of how interaction rituals in live-broadcasts affect users' long-term viewership based on using grounded theory approach. We found that users’ continuous watching behavior is rooted in the formation of the interaction rituals of live-broadcast. The interactive ritual of live-broadcast is formed by the transfer of the basic meaning of live-broadcast to the meaning of the interaction rituals, and the interactive ways between those two meanings drive the transfer of “meaning chains”. The underlying psychological mechanisms are examined. This study find that the formation process of user continuous viewing behavior is influenced by the following four factors: anchor factor, user factor, platform factor and social factor.

Research on E-commerce Live Broadcast Based on Interaction Ritual Chain Theory

E-commerce live broadcast is a new online shopping model that has gradually emerged in China in recent years. In the e-commerce live broadcast, the audience gathered into a buying group by watching and participating in virtual interaction, and obtained stable emotional energy from it. Closely following the concept of emotional energy, with the help of the interaction ritual chain model, the components of e-commerce live broadcast can be clarified. And the paper shows how individuals can form a buying group in social interaction. I will take the interaction behavior in e-commerce live broadcast as the research object and observe the phenomenon based on the theory of interaction ritual, then come up with the interaction ritual chain model of E-commerce live broadcast group.

The elite nature of International Schooling: a theoretical framework based upon rituals and character formation

ABSTRACT The well-established yet under-theorised body of ‘Traditional International Schools’ warrant much greater sociological analysis and inquiry as ‘elite’ educational institutions. This paper uses Basil Bernstein’s Sociology of the School to discuss the ‘expressive culture’ of such schools, representing an idealised model of conduct, character and manner. The role of rituals in transmitting this culture is discussed by applying Randall Collins’ Interaction Ritual Chain Theory showing how every-day festivals and fundraising events (commonly conceptualised as forming the ‘Five Fs’) can help build up positive emotional energy, which can be used to facilitate action, and embed the expressive culture. Maurice Halbwachs’ concept of Collective Memory is then used to show how interaction rituals can deliver a permanent group recollection, essential for enduring class solidarity and cohesion. Overall, an introductory and coherent theoretical framework for identifying a Sociology of International Schoolingis presented, focusing on what aspects of the schooling experience makmakes it an attractive and elite, privileged one.

What motivates audience comments on live streaming platforms?

This study aims to discuss audiences’ interaction and engagement with live streaming from a sociological perspective to investigate the different effects of information factors on audiences’ real-time interactions. Based on the interaction ritual chains theory, a data crawler was written using Python to collect data on the Huajiao platform for 1090 groups from 480 video game live rooms and 610 talent show live rooms. The results show that audiences’ commenting was mostly affected by the number of viewers, the gender of streamers, the number of likes, the number of gifts, and the duration of the live stream. Group comparison found that the effect of the number of viewers was significantly stronger in video game streaming, while the number of likes had a negative effect in video game streaming and a strong positive effect in live talent shows.

Factors Influencing Social Media Users’ Continued Intent to Donate

Social media donation is an emerging sustainable business model. Donation in the context of social media can often bring benefits to content creators and social media platforms, as well as realizing their sustainable development. Based on attachment theory, customer loyalty theory, and interaction ritual chains theory, this paper studies how feedback interaction and participatory interaction affect users’ continued intent to donate. The role of users’ emotion and price consciousness are mainly considered. Data were collected through questionnaires, and the sample covered 466 WeChat users. Structural equation modeling and linear regression were used to test the hypothesis. It was found that emotional attachment and emotional loyalty had significant positive effects on users’ continued intent to donate, and participatory interaction had significant positive effects on emotional attachment and emotional loyalty, while feedback interaction had a significant positive effect on emotional attachment. Price consciousness did not directly affect continued intent to donate, but as a moderator, it weakened the positive relationship between emotional attachment and continued intent to donate.

Whose Bodies? Bringing Gender Into Interaction Ritual Chain Theory

AbstractThe goal of this paper is to bring gender into the theory of interaction ritual chains. While this theory focuses on how bodies emotionally respond within interactions, it ignores how the sex–gender system impacts bodies. The cultural norms for women and men shape how bodies react emotionally in rituals. To demonstrate the need for interaction rituals to account for gender, I explore how gendered feeling rules affect ritual outcomes in religious congregations. Using multilevel regressions to analyze data from the 2001 US Congregational Life Survey, I show that men have lower levels of emotional energy than women. Additionally, the gender ratio has an effect, and individuals who are in congregations with higher percentages of men experience lower levels of emotional energy. This effect is more powerful for men than it is for women. I conclude by stating that interaction ritual theory must account for the gendered identities of its participants.

Human rights, micro-solidarity and moral action: ‘Face-to-face’ encounters in the Israeli/Palestinian context

While there is extensive literature on both the expansion of human rights and solidarity movements, and on micro-solidarity and violent actions, here I ask what is the relationship between human rights, micro-solidarity and social action? Based on a case study of structured, face-to-face dialogue group encounters in the Israeli/Palestinian context, I draw on Randall Collins’s interaction ritual chain theory to demonstrate why emotional energy and the ritualization of historical narratives have very limited potential to translate into human rights-based moral actions. Instead, I suggest, these encounters produce micro-solidarity that ascribes additional weight to ethnic categories, serving to polarize and homogenize groups along ethnic lines.

Gender, Artifacts, and Ritual Encounters: The Case of Tomboy Tools Sales Parties.

Tomboy Tools is a company that markets tools and home-repair techniques to women, using a home party sales model. This provides an interesting case to consider how traditional gendered domains can be transcended, and how they are reshaped to allow this to happen. Drawing on participant observation and interviews with consumers, salespeople, and executives of Tomboy Tools, this paper draws on Collins' (2004) theory of interaction ritual chains to explore the microstructures and ritual dynamics of these home parties. Our analysis reveals how both new and more traditional feminine practices and scripts are idealized and reinforced within the collective effervescence that is generated through the shared ritual experience. We examine how women critically interpret the tensions and contradictions that arise in the symbolic representations that seem to support both female empowerment and traditional feminine stereotypes. This leads to varying meanings among the women with respect to the artifacts and sales rituals presented, for their implications on gender identity and politics.

The Role of Social Media in Collective Processes of Place Making: A Study of Two Neighborhood Blogs in Amsterdam

The wide use of social media has facilitated new social practices that influence place meaning. This paper uses a double case study of two neighborhood blogs in gentrifying communities, to explore the role of social media in sharing place associations and community formation. Drawing on Collins’ theory of interaction ritual chains, this research project investigates how the intertwining of online and offline interaction around the blogs creates interaction chains whereby the place associations of participants in the blog become more aligned, creating an alternative place narrative. Analyses of the dynamics of involvement with the blogs show how social interactions spurred by the blogs generate emotional energy, group solidarity, feelings of morality, meaningful symbols, and feelings of place attachment among the participants. This article illuminates how the emerging process of place (re)making spurred by interaction with the blog emerges from both everyday unplanned behavior and strategic aims of the actors.

Interaction Rituals in Organizations: A Panel Discussion Featuring Randall Collins

Randall Collins’s theory of interaction ritual chains (IRC) makes an ambitious and far-reaching contention: emotional energy generated from bodily interactions is the common denominator of action, ...

小事情、大幸福：互动仪式链理论视角下服务仪式对品牌福祉的影响

小事情、大幸福：互动仪式链理论视角下服务仪式对品牌福祉的影响

The transformative role of interaction rituals within therapeutic communities.

Mental health settings are fraught with emotion as clients address difficult life experiences and relational patterns. Clients spend a substantial amount of time together outside of structured therapy, but little is known about how these moments are potentially therapeutic, especially as sites of emotional change. We draw on interaction ritual chain theory to explore how negative emotions in situations outside of formal therapy can be transformed into positive emotions and facilitate personal change. The research is based upon a narrative ethnography of two therapeutic communities for individuals with a diagnosis of personality disorder. Despite the presence of negative transient emotions in these rituals, clients experienced positive feelings of solidarity and belonging, and the majority of clients reported increased feelings of confidence and positive change. Conversely, dynamics between clients showed clients were not always supportive of one another and at times, could exclude others, resulting in isolation and alienation. We argue interactions that generate feelings of inclusion or exclusion over time are a key component in whether clients gain positive or negative emotional feeling and experience personal change.

Rituals of recognition: Interactions and interaction rules in sheltered workshops in the Netherlands

ABSTRACT Recent decades have witnessed mounting attention to the theme of recognition, both in public policy and in the academic world. Scholarly debate on recognition is dominated by philosophers, while the policy debate is dominated by political and educational perspectives. A sociological perspective has scarcely been developed. In this article, we approach recognition as a sociological phenomenon with the aid of Collins’ theory of Interaction Ritual Chains. Our research is located in three Dutch sheltered workshops that aim to provide recognition through work to young men with mild intellectual disabilities. While Collins provides an interesting interactional perspective to distinguish between different situations of recognition, we add an institutional dimension by showing how individualising labour-market policies and care practices articulate a set of ‘interaction rules’ that encourage some recognition rituals and foreclose others. This demonstrates the importance of a sociological contribution to the debate on recognition, and points to ‘unintended consequences’ of policies that aim to strengthen recognition in ways that in fact cannot be achieved by those involved. Such a sociological perspective can bring out more practical and nuanced accounts of recognition, and enrich both scholarly and policy debates on this topic.