Considering the Social and Material Surround: Toward Microethnographic Understandings of Nonverbal Behavior

Keywords

interactional context, activity systems, inseparability of modes

Abstract

Nonverbal communication occurs naturally and necessarily within a social and
material environment. When people gesture with their hands, for example, they usually talk to someone at the same time, coordinating their visible and vocal behaviors to be understood altogether (e.g., Schegloff, 1984). Hands occupy and move within three-dimensional spaces that include physical objects and structures, and gestures may be largely recognized and understood through their relationship to the material world within reach (e.g., C. Goodwin, 1997, 2000b; Heath & Hindmarsh, 2000; LeBaron & Streeck, 2000). Also, communication is a process of interaction among participants who jointly create messages and meanings, as when the audience of a gesture helps to co-author that gesture (Streeck, 1994). Furthermore, nonverbal behaviors may be embedded within extended processes or activities such that any particular behavior, such as a gesture, is understood through its relationship to the whole activity (e.g., Koschmann, LeBaron, Goodwin, & Feltovich, 2003). Because gestures and other forms of nonverbal behavior occur naturally and necessarily embedded, arguably they should be analyzed as inseparable from the social and material surround.

Original Publication Citation

LeBaron, C. (2005). Considering the social and material surround: Toward microethnographic understandings of nonverbal behavior. In V. Manusov (Ed.), The Sourcebook of Nonverbal Measures (pp. 493-506). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2005

Publisher

The Sourcebook of Nonverbal Measures

Language

English

College

Marriott School of Business

Department

Marketing

University Standing at Time of Publication

Full Professor

Link to Full Text

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