Interaction

An individual actor’s behaviour can have effects on others ranging from negligible to profound. Sometimes, beliefs are shared by many others. As has been defined above, social °system° notions are sets of agreements establishing some degree of commonality in the actions and behaviours of the actors involved and affected. It is through interaction that actors negotiate and renegotiate the conditionings underlying their image creation, thus continuously producing their shared lifeworld.¹²⁹ Interaction indicates how actors cope with complexity in a continuous, interdependent process of mutual variety attenuation and amplification. It is the fundamental regulative activity that evolves, maintains, changes, or dissolves °system° notions. The outcome of interaction depends not only on the actual situation, but strongly on the prevailing contexts and intentions, e.g. the established structures and cultures.

This chapter introduces the basic notion of interaction (3.1) and illustrates the three essential aspects of interaction (3.2, 3.3, and 3.4) and how they concur (3.5).

This chapter introduces the basic notion of interaction (3.1) and illustrates the three essential aspects of interaction (3.2, 3.3, and 3.4) and how they concur (3.5).