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KEYNOTE ADDRESS: Michael Flaherty
Department of Sociology
Eckerd College and University of South Florida
KEYNOTE ADDRESS: Michael Flaherty
Department of Sociology
Eckerd College and University of South Florida
The Signal Function of Time in Social Interaction:
How Temporal Experience Provides Framing Cues for Falling in Love
The Signal Function of Time in Social Interaction:
How Temporal Experience Provides Framing Cues for Falling in Love
Goffman (1974:185-186) theorized that we recognize the pertinent understanding of the situation by attending to “framing cues” during social interaction, and, knowing this, participants often deploy “intentionally planted signals” to guide our interpretation of events. In related fashion, Arlie Hochschild (1983:29) observed that “emotion has a signal function” because it represents “a way of knowing about the world.” Both concepts—framing cues and signal function—sensitize us to information gleaned from social interaction and used to define the meaning of the situation for self. These concepts have not been subjected to sustained empirical investigation, but they may offer a basis for understanding the signal function of time and temporal experience when people strive to define an emerging and inchoate situation. This conceptual framework suggests the following research questions: During social interaction, do various dimensions of temporality signal that one is falling in love? If so, how do aspects of time and temporal experience function as framing cues for that interpretation?
These questions can only be examined empirically by means of close ethnographic description of experience and interpretation during courtship, a process dispersed across time and space. Conveniently, however, couples provide precisely the data we need in interviews for their wedding announcements in each Sunday edition of the New York Times. From this archive, we have recorded field notes from 130 wedding announcements published between 10 December 2023 and 28 July 2024. To date, the resulting file consists of 28,815 words. Every couple cited aspects of temporality as evidence that they were falling in love. These data provide strong support for our hypotheses. In rare cases, “love at first sight” is signaled by dramatic distortion in the perceived passage of time, with events transpiring in what seems like slow motion. More commonly, duration serves as a framing cue when first dates last an inordinate amount of time, and neither person wants the encounter to end. Frequency signals that they are falling in love when they strive to see or contact each other often, even every day, or monitor each other constantly on social media. There is, as well, a standard or ideal sequence to courtship, and various firsts are commemorated (first swipe, first date, first kiss, etc.). In regard to timing, the couple notes that things happen earlier or faster than usual, but the synchronicity of the timing is surprisingly mutual and propitious. They allocate considerable time to be together or to be alone, and they devote time to thinking about each other when apart. Moreover, they steal time from all other relationships and responsibilities in order to make time for each other. In short, multiple dimensions of temporality function as framing cues or signals that “falling in love” may be a valid definition of the situation. We examine the implications of these findings for theories of social interaction.
Michael Flaherty is Professor of Sociology at Eckerd College and University of South Florida. He is the author of A Watched Pot: How We Experience Time (NYU Press, 1999) and The Textures of Time (Temple University Press, 2011). He is coauthor (with K.C. Carceral) of The Cage of Days: Time and Temporal Experince in Prison (Columbia University Press, 2021). He is coeditor (with Lotte Meinert and Anne Line Dalsgård) of Time Work: Studies of Temporal Agency (Berghahn Books, 2020). He served as the editor of Symbolic Interaction (1996-1999) and as deputy editor of Social Psychology Quarterly (2015-2017). During 2016-17, he was a Marie Curie Fellow at Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies in Denmark.
FEATURED SPEAKER: Eve Gardien
Departement de Sociologie
L'Université Rennes 2
FEATURED SPEAKER: Eve Gardien
Departement de Sociologie
L'Université Rennes 2
Autre corps, autre temps
Another Body, Another Time
Nous mesurons rarement combien notre corps influence le temps, son déroulement, son management et sa négociation dans les interactions sociales au cœur de nos vies quotidiennes. Le corps est le présent-absent de nos vies ordinaires (Breton, 1984), présent en tant que matière, vie et fonctionnalités, mais aussi absent à notre conscience la plupart du temps. Pourtant, quand l’accident change brutalement le corps (Yelnick, 1998), l’impact ne porte pas seulement sur ses capacités (Gardien, 2008). Le rapport au temps est lui-aussi transformé par cet évènement choc. L’apprentissage social du corps blessé médullaire révèle d’ailleurs progressivement combien l’expérience corporelle est conscientisée, sémantisée et typifiée socialement à travers différents temps de la trajectoire de rééducation. Ce temps de l’apprentissage du corp est également celui du rôle social de patient. Être hospitalisé restreint tout d’abord drastiquement les possibilités de travail du temps (Flaherty, Meinert & Dalsgard, 2020). Puis une fois la socialisation au monde hospitalier suffisante, le patient pourra à nouveau négocier au sein des interactions sociales une certaine maitrise de son agenda. Une dernière épreuve en matière de travail du temps s’imposera à la personne blessée médullaire lors de son retour à domicile. Là encore, le corps blessé comme l’environnement généralement insuffisamment adapté participent de la construction de nouveaux repères temporels comme de nouveaux travaux de temps, notamment avec les aides-humaines.
The extent to which our bodies influence time, its unfolding, its management, and its negotiation in the social interactions at the heart of our daily lives is rarely measured. The body is the present-absent of our ordinary lives (Breton, 1984), present as matter, life and functionality, but also absent from our consciousness for much of the time. Nevertheless, when an accident results in a brutal alteration of the body (Yelnick, 1998), the consequences extend beyond mere functional limitations (Gardien, 2008). The relationship with time is also altered by this traumatic event. The social apprenticeship of the spinal cord-injured body gradually reveals the extent to which bodily experience is made conscious, semantized, and socially typified at different stages in the rehabilitation trajectory. The social learning of the body phase is also the time for the injured person to become a patient. Being hospitalized first of all drastically restricts the possibilities for time work (Flaherty, Meinert & Dalsgard, 2020). Once the patient has been sufficiently socialized about the hospital environment, they can then negotiate a certain degree of control over their agenda within the context of social interactions. Upon returning home, the spinal cord injured person will face a final challenge in terms of time management. Here again, the injured body and the generally inadequately adapted environment are both involved in the construction of new temporal reference points and new ways of time management, in particular with regards to personal care assistants.
Eve Gardien, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Sociology, and the Scientific Director of the EXPEERTs program at Rennes University (France). Her current research is focused on the examination of peer support, lived experience, and experiential knowledge production as pivotal social dynamics in the pursuit of well-being and recovery. Her background is in the field of disability and health research. Her contributions to the field include two books: Social Learning of the Body in the Aftermath of the Accident (2008) and Peer Support (2017). Additionally, Eve Gardien serves as an expert advisor to the French Health Authority on the involvement of patients in the healthcare system.
FEATURED SPEAKER: Carmen Poulin
Department of Psychology and Gender and Women's Studies
University of New Brunswick
FEATURED SPEAKER: Carmen Poulin
Department of Psychology and Gender and Women's Studies
University of New Brunswick
The Psycho-Social Ethnography of the Common Place Methodology: The Imperative Role of Time and Place in Interpretive Analyses
The Psycho-Social Ethnography of the Common Place Methodology: The Imperative Role of Time and Place in Interpretive Analyses
Understanding the prescriptive impact of dominant ideologies (often called ‘common sense’ or hegemony; Gramshi) can revolutionise how we see the world and understand our own experience. With time, dominant ideologies can change, yet they leave behind physical and social structural dynamics. In insidious ways, the gap between the present zeitgeist and these lingering structural dynamics can blur our ability to critically comprehend the present. The difficulty caused by this lag is especially true for marginalised people, often resulting in “gaslighting.” Thirty years ago, in collaboration with sociologist L. Gouliquer, I co-developed the Psycho-Social Ethnography of the Common Place (P-SEC) methodology. The purpose of P-SEC, a qualitative methodology rooted in feminist standpoint theory (Harding, 1991), was to examine the experience of marginalised individuals within a particular time and space. Using P-SEC, we encountered situations where the complexity of individuals’ experience required intentional travels through time and space. In my presentation, I will trace the theoretical development of P-SEC, untangle this insidious dynamic through examples, and argue for the imperative role of place and time in our interpretive analytical work in order to effect social change.
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