A sequential approach to simultaneity in social interaction: The emergent organization of choral actions

Abstract

The topic of simultaneity has recently been debated within multimodal Conversation Analysis (CA), interrogating the intricate temporal relations between vocal, verbal and embodied resources. This article contributes to this debate by discussing simultaneity in relation to sequentiality, a key principle characterizing human interaction. First, it examines the way simultaneity has been treated in the CA literature, highlighting both the specificity of simultaneous phenomena in social interaction and their diversity. Second, it focuses on an exemplary case of simultaneity, collectively produced choral actions. It demonstrates how participants orient to the production of simultaneous conduct, while achieving this simultaneity through the sequential organization of their actions. These actions are prepared, projected, produced and maintained in sequentially unfolding ways, achieved as such by participants. This paper argues that while simultaneity is a gloss for referring to specific temporal arrangements of conduct, sequentiality is the organizational principle securing their actual accomplishment.