Field Interaction Analysis: A Second-Person Viewpoint Approach to Maai

摘要

In this article, we investigate a second-person viewpoint approach to an interactive phenomenon called maai , in which interactants’ own perception and sense of relation to each other are central. In the basic ideas of conversation analysis (CA), one of the powerful methodologies for the second-person viewpoint approach to social interaction, it is paramount that analysts can descriptively trace participants’ orientation to events in progress with reference to sequentiality and simultaneity between actions in interaction. If we focus on detailed practices proper to a field, however, it becomes crucial to seriously consider the “on-line, prospective understanding of ongoing interaction by analysts themselves.” We propose a new framework, field interaction analysis , that expands or complements the basic ideas of CA, putting emphasis on the understanding of participants’ activities, the membership categories relevant to them, and the material environments they are in. On the basis of this new idea, we illustrate two case studies, demonstrating how maai between participants engaged in collaborative activities is manifested in the temporal order of bodily actions and spatial configuration of participants’ bodies in ways characteristic to a particular field.