Abstract

Coordination is the micro-foundation of social order. Smooth interaction requires individuals to attend and respond to one another within the flow of action, each individual continually calibrating actions to correspond to others. While this is taken for granted, the processes by which this occurs warrants examination. We apply philosophical theories of collective intentionality that specify the conditions necessary for two or more people to intend to act together to a sociological analysis of how individuals coordinate action. We treat the dyad as the most basic and prototypical group, examining dyadic encounters across three different social activities: walking together, engaging in sexual intercourse, and making music. We analyze the interplay of verbal and nonverbal communication, caution and risk, and scripted action and spontaneity, that underlies social coordination. Order implies a metaphor of rigidity and control, but social order, a product of interpersonal coordination, requires flexibility and adaptation, ranging from the minutest bodily movements to meta-understandings of local meaning.

How do dyads coordinate action to achieve a goal? How is joint action possible? This is a problem of fitting together lines of action (Blumer 1969). We address Becker's discussion of social coordination, how people act together, illustrating the “who knows what” that lies between scripted routines and spontaneous reactions.

Social acts from the most basic, such as walking together, to the more complex, such as playing music, require collaboration that develops from social relations and shared histories. To understand this we treat the dyad as the most basic and most prototypical group (Bratman 1992:327), recognizing structural differences between dyads and larger groups (Simmel 1902–1903). Building on theories of collective intentionality in philosophy and group culture theory in sociology, we argue that smooth coordination is central to social order.