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Agency and Co-production: A Multimodal Perspective
Abstract
Building on multimodal (inter)action analysis as a theoretical and methodological framework, this article introduces and develops the theoretical/methodological tool called primary agency. Taking the mediated action as a unit of analysis, agency can be analysed as a feature of action. However, there is a lack of empirical approaches for the study of agency, and an overemphasis on language as the most important site for identifying agentive action. I develop primary agency through an analysis of three co-produced higher-level actions from a research project into high school tutoring. These are the higher-level actions of conducting research, tutoring and reading a text. Applying co-production and the modal density foreground/background continuum I explore how the researcher, the tutor and the student co-produce these higher-level actions. Through this analysis, I identify the most significant mediational means for each higher-level action, and the social actor with ownership or agency over these mediational means. I define this social actor as the one with primary agency over the co-produced higher-level action. Finally, my analysis outlines the implications of primary agency for co-produced higher-level actions, including the role of the researcher, the attention/awareness participants pay to overarching research projects, and links between primary agency and successful learning.
... The activities are analysed as higher-level mediated actions (actions with an opening and a closing, such as a meeting) and lower-level mediated actions (pragmatic meaning units of modes, such as an utterance or gaze shift, which has a start and an end). Pirini (2016Pirini ( , 2017 has demonstrated that the analytical tool of modal density as an indication of attention/ awareness (Norris, 2004(Norris, , 2019 can be further developed to determine intersubjectivity and agency. I will return to this in the analytical framework section. ...
... In addition to utilising the analytical tool of modal density to analyse attention/awareness towards simultaneous higher-level actions, Pirini has further developed this tool to analyse intersubjectivity (Pirini, 2016) and agency (Pirini, 2017). In his study of high school tutoring settings, Pirini (2014) shows how transitions mark changes in attention and how the social actors produce convergent and divergent actions. ...
... Intersubjectivity is understood as co-construction of joint activity (Pirini, 2016), In my case, the layout, setting and proxemics are stable, the body posture and handling the document are adjustable, and the gaze and spoken language are fleeting. Pirini (2017) relates modal density to agency and demonstrates that an actors agency, understood as the ability to produce and initiate actions, is related to control over the most relevant means in the co-production of a higher-level actionthis actor has primary agency. Building on Jones and Norris (2005), he points out the tension between individual agency and the social and material world, where agency is influenced by professional and institutional practices. ...
This paper presents an analysis of three roleplayed interpreted institutional meetings in which sight translation is part of the interaction. The analysis is based on multimodal (inter)action analysis and utilises the analytical tool of modal density as indication of attention/awareness. This analytical framework is novel in interpreting studies. The data include filmed material from an experimental setting and participants’ reflections about the situation. The findings show variations in sight translation practices and that the shift from interpreting to sight translation affects interactional patterns, particularly social actors’ attention and agency. In my discussion of agency in sight-translated interaction, I argue that interpreters, in addition to translating, need to pay attention to interactional issues related to attention and agency caused by the interpreting method.
... Multimodal (Inter)action Analysis (Matelau, 2014;Norris, 2004Norris, , 2011Norris, , 2013Norris & Pirini, 2017;Pirini, 2014aPirini, , 2014bPirini, , 2016Pirini, , 2017Pirini, Norris, Geenen, & Matelau, 2014) is a holistic approach to the analysis of multimodal action and interaction. With its strongest theoretical origins in Mediated Discourse Analysis (Scollon, 1998(Scollon, , 2001, the framework embraces the mediated action, defined as a social actor acting with/through mediational means (Scollon, 1998(Scollon, , 2001Wertsch, 1998) as a unit of analysis. ...
... Researchers will usually observe interactions and take field notes at the same time as recording. Pirini's (2014bPirini's ( , 2016Pirini's ( , 2017 studies of tutoring are based on data collected from tutoring sessions where Pirini was observing and taking field notes while also video recording. Similarly, Norris (2006) presents video-recorded data from an office setting. ...
This chapter introduces the five most prominent approaches to multimodal data analysis: Multimodal (Inter)action Analysis, Mediated Discourse Analysis, Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis, Social Semiotics, and Multimodal Conversation Analysis. The chapter begins by discussing the origin of each approach, methods of data collection and analysis, and embedded theoretical foundations. The theoretical differences between the approaches are then examined with a focus on the way each approach treats the individual, the artefact, and the notion of mode during analysis. With the variety of available approaches to multimodal data analysis, it is important that researchers link data collection and analysis to coherent theoretical underpinnings.
... The act of engaging Caroline in reflective dialogue, responding to her narratives during the interviews contributed to an intermediary layer of discourse. The interaction between researcher and participant can create a co-constructed narrative, where the researcher becomes an active participant in the identity formation process (Pirini 2017). Although the researcher' s interaction with Caroline may have played a role in her identity development, it was not the primary focus of the study. ...
The journey from a novice to an established educator is fraught with challenges that significantly impact the development of a professional identity. This study examines the experiences of novice university English language teachers in China, focusing on Caroline, an early career teacher who navigates the challenge of navigating a high power culture and integrating into established teaching communities. Employing Multimodal (Inter)action Analysis (MIA), this research offers a nuanced examination of the interplay between Caroline’s imagined and practiced identities. The findings reveal the complexities of her identity formation, highlighting struggles with exclusion, resistance from senior colleagues, and the reconciliation of her aspirations with professional realities. The study advocates for a comprehensive approach to teacher training and support, emphasizing the need for emotional resilience, personal growth, and the integration of theory with practice. It suggests targeted mentorship, the creation of supportive ecosystems, and the adaptation of educational policies to better prepare novice educators for the multifaceted challenges of the teaching profession. This case study contributes to the global discourse on teacher identity formation, offering insights that can inform the development of more effective support structures for novice teachers, thus enhancing the quality of education.
... 5 Başlangıçta kendisini çevirmen olarak konumlandırmak üzere büyük bir çaba sarfeden Mr. Kapasi, iletişimin aksamaması için Mrs. Das'ın özel hayatına müdahil olmuş ve Das'ın rahatsızlığının "acıdan" mı yoksa "suçluluk duygusundan" mı kaynaklandığını anlamaya çalışmıştır. İletişim esnasında ortaya çıkabilecek olası engellerin ortadan kaldırılması için çevirmenlerin zaman zaman eyleyicilik özelliklerini kullanarak stratejik tercihler yaptığı bilinmektedir (Pirini, 2017). Başka bir ifadeyle, çevirmenler zaman zaman etik kuralların öngördüğü şekilde davranmayı bırakarak bir taraf haline gelmektedir. ...
Bu çalışmanın amacı, Türkiye’de sağlık çevirmenliğine ilişkin olarak yürütülen akademik çalışmalarda inşa edilen çevirmen imgesinin ışığında, Jhumpa Lahiri’nin (1999) “Interpreter of Maladies” adlı öyküsünde kurgulanan çevirmen imgesine bakmaktır. 2000 yılında “Dert Yorumcusu” başlığıyla Türkçeye çevrilen öyküde, çevirmenliğin görev tanımı ve kapsamı kurgusal düzeyde sorgulanmakta ve çevirmenden beklenen sorunları çözmek, uzlaşma sağlamak ve/veya taraf olmak gibi birtakım rollerin arabuluculuk kapsamında ele alınması gerektiğine işaret edilmektedir. Çalışma, Türkiye’de sağlık alanında çalışan çevirmenlere ilişkin olarak akademik söylemler yoluyla oluşturulan çevirmen imgesi ile Lahiri’nin öyküsünde inşa edilen çevirmen imgesini karşılaştırmaktadır. İltica ve göçler nedeniyle günlük hayatın olağan bir parçası haline gelen çevirmenlerin sinema ve yazın eserlerinde görünürlük kazanması, çeviribilimcilerin bu alanlarda inşa edilen çevirmen imgesini araştırmasına neden olmuştur çünkü sinema ve yazın eserleri toplumda yaratılan çevirmen imgelerinden beslenmektedir. Kurgusal olarak inşa edilen çevirmen imgeleri; çeviri müdahaleleri, çevirmenin yazılı veya sözlü metne sadakati, çevirmen ve yazar arasındaki güç çatışması, cinsiyet rollerinin çevirmen üzerindeki etkisi gibi konuları tartışmaya açarak çeviribilim alanında bu konularla ilgili olarak ortaya çıkan yaklaşımlara alternatif bir bakış açısı getirmektedir. Çalışma, öyküde kurgulanan müdahil çevirmen imgesinin, Türkiye’de sağlık çevirmenliğinin kültürlerarası arabuluculuk faaliyetlerini de kapsaması nedeniyle hasta yararı gözetilerek tarafsız davranılamadığına ilişkin söylemler doğrultusunda ortaya çıkan çevirmen imgesiyle örtüştüğünü ifade etmektedir. Ayrıca, çoğu zaman tarafsızlık ve tarafgirlik arasında bir tercih yapan sağlık çevirmenine ilişkin olarak oluşturulan imgenin, öyküde kurgulanan arada kalmış çevirmen stereotipiyle de örtüştüğü sonucuna varılmıştır.
... In healthcare interpreting settings, such as hospitals and mental healthcare institutions, similar constraints of context have been demonstrated by discourse-based and ethnographic studies (e.g., Angelelli, 2004;Bolden, 2000;Davidson, 2002, in Pöchhacker, 2016. As Kaufert and Putsch (1997) remarked, when there is a potential risk of communication breakdown, interpreters have agency, that is, the ability to produce and initiate actions (Pirini, 2017) and to be prompted to make individual, strategic choices. In other words, interpreters may intervene and temporarily deviate from the path prescribed by their professional codes. ...
Although the notion of context is omnipresent in research in interpreting studies (IS), especially in community settings, and defines the ways in which interpreting is being practised, researched and trained, it has not yet been recognized or defined as a topic in its own right, at least not within IS. Starting from some theoretical notions on the concept of context, this article moves on to discuss different levels of context, namely, geographical, socio-institutional and interactional. By means of examples from a variety of settings in community interpreting (CI), it shows how the different levels of context interact, and, in these ways, have an impact on CI practice, research and training.
... The methodological construct of "primary agency" (Pirini 2017, p. 1) could, for example, readily be applied by researchers seeking to answer questions pertaining to the in-process nature of collaboration, teamwork, and interaction and how agency shifts as a given student controls the most important mediational means. Pirini's (2017) theoretical-analytical scheme uses multimodal interaction analysis to locate the social actor with primary agency during the production a given higher-level action, suggesting that "within a particular higherlevel action, the social actor with primary agency expresses agency over the co-producing social actors to some extent" (Pirini 2017, p. 17). As such, multimodal interaction analysis offers methodological utility to investigate areas identified by Van Langenhove and others. ...
This exploratory case study uses multimodal positioning analysis to determine and describe how a purposefully crafted emergent artifact comes to influence and/or manipulate social dynamics, structure, and positionings of one design team comprised of five third-graders in an afterschool elementary engineering and literacy club. In addition to social semiotic theories of multimodality (e.g., Kress, G. (2010). Multimodality: a social semiotic approach to contemporary communication . New York, NY: Routledge) and multimodal interactional analysis (Norris, S. (2004). Analyzing multimodal interaction: a methodological framework . New York, NY: Routledge, Norris, S. (2019). Systematically working with multimodal data: research methods in multimodal discourse analysis . Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell), Positioning Theory (Harré, R. and Van Langenhove, L. (1991). Varieties of positioning. J. Theor. Soc. Behav. 21: 393–407) is used to examine group interactions with the artifact, with observational data collected from audio, video, researcher field notes, analytic memos, photographs, student artifacts (e.g., drawn designs, built designs), and transcriptions of audio and video data. Analysis of interactions of the artifact as it unfolds demonstrates multiple types of role-based positioning with students (e.g., builder, helper, idea-sharer). Foregrounding analysis of the artifact, rather than the student participants, exposed students’ alignment or opposition with their groupmates during the project. This study contributes to multimodal and artifactual scholarship through a close examination of positions emergent across time through multimodal communicative actions and illustrates how perspectives on multimodality may be analytically combined with Positioning Theory.
... Once we have produced transcripts of pertinent excerpts from our video data, we engage with methodological tools that are relevant for the data pieces such as modal density (Norris 2004a), modal configuration (Norris 2009a), the foregroundbackground continuum of attention/awareness (Norris 2004a;2008), semantic/pragmatic means (Norris 2004a), levels of action (Norris 2009b), scales of action (Norris 2017b), agency (Norris 2005;Pirini, 2017), or the site of engagement (Scollon 1998(Scollon , 2001Norris, 2004aNorris, , 2019Norris, , 2020Norris and Jones 2005). Here again, we rely on audio-visual technology without, however, favouring any one kind. ...
This paper presents a concise introduction to Multimodal (inter)action analysis (MIA), which began to be developed in the early 2000s in tandem with technological advances for visual qualitative research. By now, MIA has grown into a fully-fledged research framework, including multimodal philosophy, theory, method and methodology for the study of human action, interaction and identity. With systematic phases from data collection to transcription (including transcription conventions) and data analysis, this framework allows researchers to work in a data-driven and replicable manner moving past common interpretive paradigms (Norris 2019, 2020).
... Since the original development, empirical enterprises employing Multimodal (Inter)action Analysis have generated a wealth of insights both theoretically in the ongoing development of Multimodal Mediated Theory (Geenen, 2013a(Geenen, , 2014Norris, 2013) and analytically with the development of various methodological tools. Multimodal (Inter)action Analysis as an integrated framework provides tools for analysing the attention/awareness of social actors in any specific site of engagement through modal density (Norris, 2004(Norris, , 2011, the production of modal configurations (Norris, 2016(Norris, , 2017Pirini, 2016Pirini, , 2017 which help analysts discern the salience of particular modes during any segment of interaction and methods for the analysis of actions as related across time and space to various scales of action (Norris, 2017). The concepts, methodological tools and protocols outlined herein should equip bourgeoning analysts as well as experienced researchers with the basic foundations to begin micro-analysis of realtime audio-video data. ...
Multimodal (Inter)action Analysis was developed to study social interaction based upon the theoretical notion of mediated action. Building on this core concept, Multimodal (Inter)action Analysis includes several theoretical/methodological tools. These tools facilitate analysis which moves flexibly between micro-level moments of interaction and macro-level practices and discourses. In this chapter, the application of mediated action to multimodal analysis is discussed, before the central theoretical/methodological tools are introduced. Tight links are made between the tools used in Multimodal (Inter)action Analysis and the core theoretical tenets, to support robust multimodal interaction research.
... Agency, thus, can be studied as a feature of action. Pirini (2017), from a multimodal (inter)action analysis perspective, develops an empirical approach for the analysis of agency called primary agency. He explores co-production of higher-level actions and applies the modal density foreground-background continuum. ...
Virtual learning environments are increasingly important in higher education. These instructional settings render a view of academic genres that have evolved towards the development of technology-mediated communication. This chapter focuses on the digital academic genre of synchronous videoconferencing lecture to find out how a multimodal-in-context approach can be applied to examine the constraints and affordances of interaction in this digital environment. It begins by positioning genre analysis from a multimodal perspective and outlining the main features that characterise interaction in live lectures. Then, the theoretical and methodological research framework is introduced, which integrates concepts central to multimodality that belong to different perspectives: meaning functions (systemic functional multimodal discourse analysis), modal affordance and multimodal ensemble (social semiotics), modal density and higher-level actions (multimodal interaction analysis), and sequential and simultaneous actions (multimodal conversation analysis). Drawing on this eclectic framework, the analysis of interaction in this digital genre is illustrated with examples taken from a synchronous videoconferencing lecture given in an English-medium master’s degree programme. The chapter contributes to the study of spoken interactive genres. This methodology facilitates multimodal analysis of the considerable number of communicative modes that interplay in social interaction. Its application is limited to neither instructional nor to virtual settings.
... Through a systematic and detailed analysis (Norris 2019), it becomes evident on the one hand that specific micro data pieces selected by researchers from a large amount of data, when a larger point of view is disregarded, can lead to incorrect or partial findings. When, on the other hand, micro-analytical boundaries are crossed, groundbreaking findings can be discovered and exact shifts in a participant's focused attention can be determined (Pirini 2014(Pirini , 2015(Pirini , 2017. In Norris (2016, 154f), it is shown that the participant shifts his focus to the Skype call between minute 3:54 and 3:57. ...
This article problematizes the notion of selecting micro-data pieces to shed light upon the focus of participants. The issue presented is two-fold: 1. The article shows that selecting micro-analytical data pieces does not allow a researcher to determine the focus of a participant; and 2. The article demonstrates that language use of a participant does not necessarily mean that the participant is focused upon a conversation. Both, purely working with micro-analytical data pieces and the presumption that language use indicates focus of the speaker, are problematized and it is shown with an example from a relatively large study of family Skype conversation that includes 82 participants that:
1. Focused attention can only be analyzed correctly when crossing micro-analytical boundaries; and
2. A participant can utilize language without paying focused attention to an interaction.
Red Chinese movies depict heroic individuals who make significant contributions to the nation, and these films play a vital role in constructing the national image of new China. This paper explores the images of heroic individuals in red Chinese movies using multimodal action theory. The findings indicate that these individuals are characterized by their selfless sacrifices for their country, fearless perseverance, embodiment of international communist ideals, and unwavering devotion and warmth. The study also reveals that facial expressions, body movements, and language serve as critical mediational means in shaping these characters, while other forms of mediation are underutilized. Recommendations include employing more mediational means to create more nuanced and complex characters in future red Chinese movies.
This study analyzes the interplay of semiotic modes employed by a teacher and music students in a chamber music lesson for instructing, learning, and discussing. In particular, it describes how specific higher-level actions are accomplished through the mutual contextualization of talk and further audible and visible semiotic resources, such as gesture, gaze, material objects, vocalizing, and music. The focus lies on modal complexity, i.e., how different modes cohere to build action, and on modal intensity, i.e., the importance of specific modes related to their useful modal reaches. This study also attends to the linking and coherent coordination of interactional turns by the participants to achieve a mutual understanding of musical ideas and concepts. The rich multimodal texture of instructional, negotiation, and discussion actions in chamber music lessons stresses the role of multimodality and multimodal coherence in investigating music and pedagogy from an interactional perspective.
This thesis examines the construction of hybrid and fluid ethnic identity elements as produced by Māori and Pacific female artists. Ethnic identity studies within New Zealand reveal different types of ethnic identities, and although there is research being conducted into hybrid and fluid Māori and Pacific identity elements, no studies have been done examining the construction of these identities through mediated action. This thesis attempts to fill this gap.
Using video ethnography and socio-linguistic interviews, data were collected and analysed utilising multimodal (inter)action analysis (MIA) as the theoretical and methodological framework. Vertical identity production and site of engagement are analytical tools within MIA that allow for the study of the intersection between discourses and mediated actions performed by social actors. These analytical tools were applied to interview and video transcripts selected from the data, following a systematic process of data cataloguing.
Analysis of the data is presented in three chapters which show the ethnic and creative identity production of the participants as constructed through the central, intermediary and outer layers of discourse. The first analysis chapter demonstrates the way the participants create art by blending traditional and contemporary features and diverse knowledge, in turn constructing their immediate ethnic and creative identity elements. This analysis is compared to the way the participants verbalise these identity elements within their interviews. The second analysis chapter examines the way experiences of exclusion and inclusion from within their networks shape their continuous ethnic and
creative identity elements. The third analysis chapter explores moments of exclusion and inclusion but within larger communities such as mainstream New Zealand, and their ethnic communities. It also illustrates the way in which the participants’ art creates inclusion and shapes the general ethnic and creative identity development of other social actors.
Following this, wider discourses and practices are examined using the site of engagement as the analytical tool. This chapter demonstrates the way in which wider discourses such as colonial, superiority/inferiority and racism discourse intersect with practices such as superiority/inferiority, gratitude, and marginalisation and with the mediated actions performed by the participants. This analysis highlights the negative impact these discourses and practices can have on ethnic identity construction for Māori and Pacific social actors. To this end, numerous recommendations are made within the conclusion with the intention of changing these wider discourses and practices.
This thesis contributes to knowledge in the area of Māori and Pacific identity studies by utilising multimodal (inter)action analysis to study identity production. It also contributes to the theoretical and methodological framework of multimodal (inter)action analysis.
In this article we introduce this special issue of Multimodal Communication. We briefly describe the founding of the Multimodal Research Centre and the journal Multimodal Communication before introducing each of the articles featured in this issue.
Multimodal interaction analysis is a holistic methodological framework that allows the analyst to integrate the verbal with the nonverbal, and to integrate these with material objects and the environment as they are being used by individuals acting and interacting in the world. In short, multimodal interaction analysis allows a researcher to study real people interacting with others, with technology, and with the environment. The point of view taken in multimodal interaction analysis is that all actions in fact are interactions and that all of these (inter)actions are linked to people (referred to as “social actors” in multimodal interaction analysis)—no matter whether you are investigating the real or the virtual world, someone buying ice cream, or using a software program. Multimodal interaction analysis is carried out through a series of analytical phases and steps. Researchers utilize multimodal transcription conventions and analytical tools, which are theoretically founded, allowing for replicability of analyses and reliability of findings. Multimodal interaction analysis allows the integration of all communicative modes, where communicative modes are defined as systems of mediated actions. In this view, all modes of communication together build one system of communication, which comes about through actions and interactions that people produce. This coherent framework and process of analysis can be taught and learned and is proving useful for research examining what people do, how they communicate, and how they interact.
By testing a model for analysing identity in interaction, the present article explores how a history student teacher produces social identity in relation to his future profession as a teacher, with an important point of departure being the relationship between the academic and professional aspects of teacher education. This is addressed through an empirical analysis of a student teacher’s identity production in a specific academic setting: a bachelor thesis course. The main body of data consists of audio recordings and video recordings from a group of three student teachers giving feedback on each other’s theses. With respect to methodology, the article employs a model from multimodal (inter)action analysis that focuses on the concept of vertical identity – the notion that identity in interaction is produced in three layers of discourse simultaneously. The results show that the main participant produces the identity of history teacher in an academic setting where such identity production is not encouraged, e.g. by resemiotisising curricula: thus, policy documents can work as a tool when producing teacher identity. This production of identity is done by employing strong agency, which consequently points to the need of a more elaborated discussion on agency in the tested model.
In this chapter we discuss how agency has traditionally been viewed as the individual’s intentionality, whereas ‘MDA's approach goes beyond the individual, viewing it as integrated – and in tension with – the actor’s habitus, the mediational means employed and the social practices involved in constructing a mediated action.’ (Jones and Norris: 169)
From emails relating to adoption over the Internet to discussions in the airline cockpit, the spoken or written texts we produce can have significant social consequences. The area of mediated discourse analysis considers the actions individuals take with texts – and the consequences of those actions.
Discourse in Action brings together leading scholars from around the world in the area of mediated discourse analysis and reveals ways in which its theory and methodology can be used in research into contemporary social situations. Each chapter explores real situations and draws on real data to show how the analysis of concrete social actions broadens our understanding of discourse. Taken together, the chapters provide a comprehensive overview to the field and offer a range of current studies that address some of the most important questions facing students and researchers in linguistics, education, communication studies and other fields.
This study explores how agency emerges and is negotiated moment by moment in interaction by applying Erving Goffman’s notion of production format to an extended sequence of discourse that revolves around accomplishing a conjoint action: the rewriting of an official letter. Deconstructing the participants into the social roles they undertake in accomplishing this task illustrates what is involved in exercising agency: interactively negotiating production format roles and footing shifts through several linguistic strategies aimed at either claiming, ratifying, or rejecting the participants’ agency. These include providing options, negotiating production format roles, asking questions, speaking for another, questioning and asserting expertise, providing counter-arguments, and asserting past agentive selves. This study, thus, contributes to an understanding of agency as co-constructed, mediated, and continually negotiated, while also identifying specific linguistic strategies through which agency is negotiated in interaction. (Agency, disability, production format, social actor, conjoint action, linguistic strategies)
This work presents landmark research concerning the vital dynamics of childhood psychological development. It’s origin can be traced to the late 1970s, when several psychologists began to challenge existing notions of cognitive development by suggesting that such functioning is bound to specific contexts and that cognitive development is based on the mastery of culturally defined ways of speaking, thinking, and acting. About the same time, several translations were made available in this country of the seminal work of Vygotsky, the noted theoretician, offering a conceptual base on which these workers could build. This volume, with contributions from many of the scholars who pioneered this area and translated the work of Vygotsky, looks at the complex mechanisms by which children acquire the cultural and linguistic tools to carry out cognitive activities and explores the implications of this research for education. The book is organized around three main parts: Discourse and Learning in Classroom Practice, Interpersonal Relations in Formal and Informal Education, and The Sociocultural Institutions of Formal and Informal Education. An afterword by Jacqueline Goodnow suggests new directions for sociocultural research and education. The intended audience is composed of developmental, educational, and cognitive psychologists, along with advanced students in developmental and educational psychology.
This article develops a new methodological tool, called scales of action, which allows the empirical investigation of ubiquitous actions such as driving on the one hand, and the highly complex relationships between (for example) drives and other actions in everyday life on the other hand. Through empirical analysis of ethnographic data of drives performed by a German artist and an American IT specialist, the article illustrates how talk and driving are embedded differently in different cultural contexts. Examining the actions of the two drivers before, during, and after a drive further demonstrates that chronologically performed actions are not necessarily sequential in nature. Using a mediated discourse theoretical approach and building upon multimodal (inter)action analysis, the article provides analysts with a tool that captures the inherent complexities of everyday actions. Through the notion of scales of action and their composition, this article sheds new light upon the complexity and cultural differences of drives and car talk in middle class Germany and North America.
Researchers seeking to analyse how intersubjectivity is established and maintained face significant challenges. The purpose of this article is to provide theoretical/methodological tools that begin to address these challenges. I develop these tools by applying several concepts from multimodal (inter)action analysis to an excerpt taken from the beginning of a tutoring session, drawn from a wider data set of nine one-to-one tutoring sessions. Focusing on co-produced higher-level actions as an analytic site of intersubjectivity, I show that lower-level actions that co-constitute a higher-level action can be delineated into tiers of materiality. I identify three tiers of materiality: durable, adjustable and fleeting. I introduce the theoretical/methodological tool tiers of material intersubjectivity to delineate these tiers analytically from empirical data, and show how these tiers identify a multimodal basis of material intersubjectivity. Building on this analysis I argue that the durable and adjustable tiers of material intersubjectivity produce the interactive substrate, which must be established in order for actions that display fleeting materiality to produce intersubjectivity. These theoretical/methodological tools extend the framework of multimodal (inter)action analysis, and I consider some potential applications beyond the example used here.
Moving towards multimodal mediated theory, I propose to define a mode as a system of mediated action that comes about through concrete lower-level actions that social actors take in the world. In order to explain exactly how a mode is a system of mediated action, I turn to a perfume blog and use one blog entry as my starting point. The mode that I primarily focus on in this article is the mode of smell, explicating that the mode of smell is not synonymous with olfactory perception, even though modal development of smell is certainly partially dependent upon olfactory perception.
As I am ostensibly focusing on the one mode, I once again problematize this notion of countability and delineate the purely theoretical and heuristic unit of mode (Norris, 2004). I clarify that modes a) do not exist in the world as they are purely theoretical in nature; b) that modes can be delineated in various ways; and c) that modes are never singular.
Even though the concept of mode is problematical – and in my view needs to always be problematized – I argue that the term and the notion of mode is theoretically useful as it allows us to talk about and better understand communication and (inter)action in three respects: 1. The notion of mode allows us to investigate regularities as residing on a continuum somewhere between the social actor(s) and the mediational means; 2. The theoretical notion of mode embraces socio-cultural and historical as well as individual characteristics, never prioritising any of these and always embracing the tension that exists between social actor(s) and mediational means; and 3. The theoretical notion of mode demonstrates that modal development through concrete lower-level actions taken in the world, is transferable to other lower-level actions taken.
Invitations to Love: Literacy, Love Letters, and Social Change in Nepal. Laura M. Ahearn .Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press,2001. vii. 295 pp., photographs, tables, notes, references, index.
This article aims (1) to analytically disaggregate agency into its several component elements (though these are interrelated empirically), (2) to demonstrate the ways in which these agentic dimensions inter-penetrate with forms of structure, and (3) to point out the implications of such a conception of agency for empirical research. The authors conceptualize agency as a temporally embedded process of social engagement, informed by the past (in its "iterational" or habitual aspect) but also oriented toward the future (as a "projective" capacity to imagine alternative possibilities) and toward the present (as a "practical-evaluative" capacity to contextualize past habits and future projects within the contingencies of the moment).
In this monograph, the author offers a new way of examining the much discussed notion of identity through the theoretical and methodological approach called multimodal interaction analysis. Moving beyond a traditional discourse analysis focus on spoken language, this book expands our understanding of identity construction by looking both at language and its intersection with such paralinguistic features as gesture, as well as how we use space in interaction. The author illustrates this new approach through an extended ethnographic study of two women living in Germany. Examples of their everyday interactions elucidate how multimodal interaction analysis can be used to extend our understanding of how identity is produced and negotiated in context from a more holistic point of view.
Our perception of our everyday interactions is shaped by more than what is said. From coffee with friends to interviews, meetings with colleagues and conversations with strangers, we draw on both verbal and non-verbal behaviour to judge and consider our experiences.
Analyzing Multimodal Interaction is a practical guide to understanding and investigating the multiple modes of communication, and provides an essential guide for those undertaking field work in a range of disciplines, including linguistics, sociology, education, anthropology and psychology. The book offers a clear methodology to help the reader carry out their own integrative analysis, equipping them with the tools they need to analyze a situation from different points of view. Drawing on research into conversational analysis and non-verbal behaviour such as body movement and gaze, it also considers the role of the material world in our interactions, exploring how we use space and objects - such as our furniture and clothes - to express ourselves. Considering a range of real examples, such as traffic police officers at work, doctor-patient meetings, teachers and students, and friends reading magazines together, the book offers lively demonstrations of multimodal discourse at work.
Illustrated throughout and featuring a mini-glossary in each chapter, further reading, and advice on practical issues such as making transcriptions and video and audio recordings, this practical guide is an essential resource for anyone interested in the multiple modes of human interaction.
Taking the action, rather than the utterance or the text, as the unit of analysis, this article isolates different modes, investigating the interdependent relationships, illustrating that the visual mode of gestures can take up a hierarchically equal or a super-ordinate position in addition to the commonly understood sub-ordinate position in relation to the mode of spoken language. Building on McNeill, Birdwhistell, Eco, and Ekman and Friesen, and using a multimodal interaction analytical approach (Norris), I analyse in detail three separate everyday (inter)actions in which a deictic gesture is being performed and spoken language is used by the social actor performing the gesture. With these examples, I build on previous work in multimodal analysis of texts and multimodal interaction analysis, illustrating that the verbal is not necessarily more important than the visual (Kress and Van Leeuwen; Norris; Scollon), demonstrating that verbal and visual modes can be utilized together to (co)produce one message (Van Leeuwen), and showing that a mode utilized by a social actor producing a higher-level discourse structure hierarchically supersedes other modes in interaction (Norris).
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