Article published in:
Multiactivity in Social Interaction: Beyond multitasking
Edited by Pentti Haddington, Tiina Keisanen, Lorenza Mondada and Maurice Nevile
[Not in series 187] 2014
► pp. 33–76

The temporal orders of multiactivity

Operating and demonstrating in the surgical theatre

This chapter deals with multiactivity as the participants’ coordination of concurrent activities in which they are involved at the same time. Drawing on ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, and considering time as both a crucial dimension for defining the phenomenon and an important source of variation within it, the chapter focuses on different temporal orders characterising multiactivity and offers a systematic account of their organisation. Although this conceptualisation of time is based on a careful examination of how surgeons manage multiactivity in the operating room, the temporal orders identified in this way address general issues concerning the temporal and sequential organisation of concurrent courses of actions.
Published online: 04 September 2014
https://doi.org/10.1075/z.187.02mon
References
Auer, P
(1999) From codeswitching via language mixing to fused lects: Toward a dynamic typology of bilingual speech. International Journal of Bilingualism, 3, 309–332. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2009) Online syntax. Thoughts on the temporality of spoken language. Language Sciences, 31, 1–13. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Broth, M
(2008) The studio interaction as a contextual resource for TV-production. Journal of Pragmatics, 40(5), 904–926. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Condon, W.S
(1971) Speech and body motion synchrony of the speaker-hearer. In D.L. Horton, & J.J. Jenkins (Eds.), Perception of language (pp. 150–173). Columbus: Merrill.Google Scholar
Garfinkel, H
(1948/2005) Seeing sociologically. Boulder: Paradigm Press.Google Scholar
Goffman, E
(1963) Behavior in public places: Notes on the social organization of gatherings. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Goodwin, C
(1979) The interactive construction of a sentence in natural conversation. In 
G. Psathas (Ed.), Everyday language: Studies in ethnomethodology (pp. 97–121). New York: Irvington Publishers.Google Scholar
(2002) Time in action. Current Anthropology, 43, 19–35. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Goodwin, C., & Goodwin, M.H
(1996) Seeing as a situated activity: Formulating planes. In D. Middleton, & Y. Engestrom (Eds.), Cognition and communication at work (pp. 61–95). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2004) Participation. In A. Duranti (Ed.), A companion to linguistic anthropology (pp. 222–244). Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Goodwin, M.H
(1980) Processes of mutual monitoring implicated for the production of description sequences. Sociological Inquiry, 50(3–4), 303–317. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(1996) Informings and announcements in their environments: prosody within a multiactivity work setting. In E. Couper-Kuhlen, & M. Selting (Eds.), Prosody in conversation: Interactional studies (pp. 436–461). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Gumperz, J.J
(1982) Discourse strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Haddington, P. & Rauniomaa, M
(2011) Technologies, multitasking and driving: Attending to and preparing for a mobile phone conversation in the car. Human Communication Research, 37, 223–254. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Heath, C. & Luff, P
(1992) Collaboration and control: Crisis management and multimedia technology in London underground line control rooms. Journal of Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 1(1–2), 69–94. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Heath, C., & Luff, P
(2000) Technology in action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hindmarsh, J., & Pilnick, A
(2007) Knowing bodies at work: Embodiment and ephemeral teamwork in anaesthesia. Organization Studies, 28(9), 1395–1416. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hopper, P
(1987) Emergent grammar. Papers of the Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 13, 139–157.Google Scholar
Jefferson, G
(1973) A case of precision timing in ordinary conversation: Overlapped tag-positioned address terms in closing sequences. Semiotica, 9, 47–96. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kendon, A
(1980) Gesture and speech: Two aspects of the process of utterance. In M.R. Key (Ed.), Nonverbal Communication and Language (pp. 207–277). The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Koschmann, T., LeBaron, C., Goodwin, C., Zemel, A., & Dunnington, G
(2007) Formulating the triangle of doom. Gesture, 7(1), 97–118. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Koschmann, T., LeBaron, C., Goodwin, C., & Feltovich, P
(2011) “Can you see the cystic artery yet?” A simple matter of trust. Journal of Pragmatics, 43, 521–541. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
McNeill, D
(1985) So you think gestures are nonverbal? Psychology Review, 92(3), 350–371. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Mondada, L
(2001) Intervenir à distance dans une opération chirurgicale: l’organisation interactive d’espaces de participation. Bulletin Suisse de Linguistique Appliquée, 74, 33–56.Google Scholar
(2003) Working with video: how surgeons produce video records of their actions. Visual Studies, 18(1), 58–72. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2006a) Multiactivité, multimodalité et séquentialité: l’initiation de cours d’action parallèles en contexte scolaire [Multiactivity, multimodality and sequentiality: Initiating parallel courses of action in the school context]. In M.-C. Guernier, V. Durand-Guerrier, & J.-P. Sautot (Eds.), Interactions verbales, didactiques et apprentissage [Verbal instructions, teaching and learning]. (pp. 45–72). Besançon: Presses Universitaires de Franche Comté.Google Scholar
(2006b) Video recording as the reflexive preservation of fundamental features for analysis. In H. Knoblauch, J. Raab, H.-G. Soeffner, B. Schnettler (Eds.), Video analysis (pp. 51–68). Bern: Lang.Google Scholar
(2007a) Operating together through videoconference: Members’ procedures accomplishing a common space of action. In S. Hester, & D. Francis (Eds.), Orders of ordinary action (pp. 51–67). Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
(2007b) Transcript variations and the indexicality of transcribing practices. Discourse Studies, 9(6), 809–821. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2007c) Bilingualism and the analysis of talk at work: Code-switching as a resource for the organization of action and interaction. In M. Heller (Ed.), Bilingualism: A social approach (pp. 297–318). New York: Palgrave.Google Scholar
(2007d) Multimodal resources for turn-taking: Pointing and the emergence of possible next speakers. Discourse Studies, 9(2), 195–226.Google Scholar
(2008) Using video for a sequential and multimodal analysis of social interaction: Videotaping institutional telephone calls [88 paragraphs]. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 9(3), Art. 39. Retrieved Feb 28, 2014from http://​nbn​-resolving​.de​/urn:nbn:de:0114​-fqs0803390.Google Scholar
(2009) The methodical organization of talking and eating: assessments in dinner conversations. Food Quality and Preference, 20, 558–571. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2011) The organization of concurrent courses of action in surgical demonstrations. In J. Streeck, C. Goodwin, & C. LeBaron (Eds.), Embodied interaction, language and body in the material world (pp. 207–226). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
(2012) Talking and driving: Multiactivity in the car. Semiotica, 191, 223–256.Google Scholar
in press). Multimodal completions. In A. Deppermann, & S. Günthner (Eds.) Temporality and Interaction Amsterdam/Philadelphia John Benjamins
Muyskens, P
(2000) Bilingual speech: A typology of code-mixing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Nevile, M
(2004) Beyond the black Box: Talk-in-interaction in the airline cockpit. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
(2012) Interaction as distraction in driving: A body of evidence. Semiotica, 191, 169–196.Google Scholar
Rawls, A.W
(2005) Garfinkel’s conception of time. Time & Society, 14(2/3), 163–190. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sanchez Svensson, M., Heath, C., & Luff, P
(2007) Instrumental action: The timely exchange of implements during surgical operations. In L. Bannon, I. Wagner, C. Gutwin, R. Harper, & K. Schmidt (Eds.), ECSCW ’07. Proceedings of the 10th European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (pp. 41–60). Berlin: Springer.Google Scholar
Schegloff, E.A
(2000) Overlapping talk and the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language in Society, 29(1), 1–63. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2007) Sequence organization in interaction: A primer in conversation analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Schegloff, E.A., & Sacks, H
(1973) Opening up closings. Semiotica, 8, 289–327. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Suchman, L
(1996) Constituting shared workspaces. In D. Middleton, & Y. Engeström (Eds.), Cognition and communication at work (pp. 35–60). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(1997) Centers of coordination: A case and some themes. In L. Resnick, C. Pontecorvo, & R. Säljö (Eds.), Discourse, tools, and reasoning: Essays on situated cognition (pp. 41–62). Berlin: Springer. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Whalen, J
(1995) A technology of order production: Computer-aided dispatch in public safety communications. In P. ten Have, & G. Psathas (Eds.), Situated order: Studies in the social organization of talk and embodied activities (pp. 187–230). Washington: University Press of America.Google Scholar
Whalen, J., Whalen, M., & Henderson, K
(2002) Improvisational choreography in teleservice work. British Journal of Sociology, 53(2), 239–258. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Zimmerman, D
(1992) The interactional organization of calls for emergency assistance. In P. Drew, & J. Heritage (Eds.), Talk at work: Social interaction in institutional settings (pp. 418–469). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 26 other publications

No author info given
2021.  In OKAY across Languages [Studies in Language and Social Interaction, 34], Crossref logo
Arano, Yusuke
2020. Doing reflecting: Embodied solitary confirmation of instructed enactment. Discourse Studies 22:3 ► pp. 261 ff. Crossref logo
Balaman, Ufuk & Simona Pekarek Doehler
2022. Navigating the complex social ecology of screen-based activity in video-mediated interaction. Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) 32:1 ► pp. 54 ff. Crossref logo
De Stefani, Elwys, Paul Sambre & Dorien Van De Mieroop
2016. The interactional history of examples and parentheses. Language and Dialogue 6:1 ► pp. 110 ff. Crossref logo
D’Antoni, Federica & Elwys De Stefani
2022. On Being Known: Displays of Familiarity in Italian Café Encounters. Research on Language and Social Interaction 55:1 ► pp. 79 ff. Crossref logo
Ehmer, Oliver & Geert Brône
2021. Instructing embodied knowledge: multimodal approaches to interactive practices for knowledge constitution. Linguistics Vanguard 7:s4 Crossref logo
Harrison, Simon & Robert F. Williams
2017. Monitoring the swimzone while finding south: sustained orientation in multiactivity among beach lifeguards. Text & Talk 37:6 ► pp. 683 ff. Crossref logo
Heinonen, Pilvi, Jarkko Niemi & Timo Kaski
2021. Changing participation in web conferencing: the shared computer screen as an online sales interaction resource. Applied Linguistics Review 0:0 Crossref logo
Helisten, Marika
2019. Disjunctively Positioned Problem-Noticings in Managing Multiactivity. Research on Language and Social Interaction 52:4 ► pp. 318 ff. Crossref logo
Hoey, Elliott M.
2015. Lapses: How People Arrive at, and Deal With, Discontinuities in Talk. Research on Language and Social Interaction 48:4 ► pp. 430 ff. Crossref logo
Hoey, Elliott M.
2022. Self-authorizing action: On let me X in English social interaction. Language in Society 51:1 ► pp. 95 ff. Crossref logo
Hömke, Paul, Judith Holler & Stephen C. Levinson
2017. Eye Blinking as Addressee Feedback in Face-To-Face Conversation. Research on Language and Social Interaction 50:1 ► pp. 54 ff. Crossref logo
Kamunen, Antti
2019. How to Disengage: Suspension, Body Torque, and Repair. Research on Language and Social Interaction 52:4 ► pp. 406 ff. Crossref logo
König, Katharina & Florence Oloff
2018. Die Multimodalität alltagspraktischen Erzählens. Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik 48:2 ► pp. 277 ff. Crossref logo
Merlino, Sara
2021.  In How Emotions Are Made in Talk [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 321], ► pp. 233 ff. Crossref logo
Mondada, Lorenza
2017. Le défi de la multimodalité en interaction. Revue française de linguistique appliquée Vol. XXII:2 ► pp. 71 ff. Crossref logo
Mondada, Lorenza
2018. The multimodal interactional organization of tasting: Practices of tasting cheese in gourmet shops. Discourse Studies 20:6 ► pp. 743 ff. Crossref logo
Nielsen, Søren Beck
2021. Interactional integration of talk and note-taking. Psychology of Language and Communication 25:1 ► pp. 145 ff. Crossref logo
Pekarek Doehler, Simona & Ufuk Balaman
2021. The Routinization of Grammar as a Social Action Format: A Longitudinal Study of Video-Mediated Interactions. Research on Language and Social Interaction 54:2 ► pp. 183 ff. Crossref logo
Satti, Ignacio
2021. When it’s “now or never”. Narrative Inquiry Crossref logo
Savolainen, Irina, Anu Klippi, Tuula Tykkyläinen, Jeff Higginbotham & Kaisa Launonen
2020. The structure of participants’ turn-transition practices in aided conversations that use speech-output technologies. Augmentative and Alternative Communication 36:1 ► pp. 18 ff. Crossref logo
Scheidt, Carl Eduard, Stefan Pfänder, Arianna Ballati, Stefan Schmidt & Claas Lahmann
2021. Language and Movement Synchronization in Dyadic Psychotherapeutic Interaction – A Qualitative Review and a Proposal for a Classification. Frontiers in Psychology 12 Crossref logo
Stefani, Elwys De & Anne-Sylvie Horlacher
2018. Mundane talk at work: Multiactivity in interactions between professionals and their clientele. Discourse Studies 20:2 ► pp. 221 ff. Crossref logo
Vatanen, Anna & Pentti Haddington
2021. Multiactivity in adult-child interaction: accounts resolving conflicting courses of action in request sequences. Text & Talk 0:0 Crossref logo
Wakke, Denise & Vivien Heller
2022. Helping as a Concurrent Activity: How Students Engage in Small Groups While Pursuing Classroom Tasks. Frontiers in Psychology 12 Crossref logo
Yagi, Junichi
2021. Enacting burikko . Applied Pragmatics 3:2 ► pp. 195 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 26 april 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.