The interactional production of multiple spatialities within a participatory democracy meeting

Abstract

The paper offers an interactional and praxeological approach to spatiality by stressing the importance of social action for the making of space. In this perspective, space is not mere materiality pre-existent to interaction; it is a practical interactional achievement. In order to show how interaction, language and space intermingle, the paper focuses on a participatory democracy meeting intended to elaborate collaboratively on the principles of an urbanistic project. This case study constitutes a perspicuous setting for the study of practices of space-making: collaborative planning is a context where the production of space is observably negotiated, discussed, argued. The analysis of video-recorded fragments of this meeting reveals a multi-layered spatiality, articulating represented space as it is described within talk, interactional space as it emerges from the dynamic distribution of the participants within the room, and inscriptional space as it is used and shaped by the public writing of people's proposals on a board. These multiple spatialities are all interactionally achieved through the way in which participants’ actions are organised in a timely and embodied manner.

Keywords:

• conversation analysis
• multimodality
• meeting
• participation
• space

Notes

1. Talk has been transcribed according to conventions developed by Gail Jefferson. An indicative translation is provided line per line. Multimodal details have been transcribed according to the following conventions (see Mondada 2007b; http://icar.univ-lyon2.fr/projets/corinte/bandeau_droit/convention_icor.htm):

  **  delimit descriptions of one speaker's actions.

  ++  delimit descriptions of another speaker's actions.

  *--->  action described continues across subsequent lines.

  *--->>  action described continues until and after excerpt's end.

  ---->*  action described continues until the same symbol is reached.

  >>--  action described begins before the excerpt's beginning.

  ....  action's preparation.

  ,,,,,  action's retraction.

  cha  participant doing the action is identified in small characters when s/he is not the current speaker or when the gesture is made during a pause.

  fig  figure; screen shot.

  #  indicates the exact moment at which the screen shot has been recorded.