Kupetz2019

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Kupetz2019
BibType INCOLLECTION
Key Kupetz2019
Author(s) Maxi Kupetz
Title Embodying empathy in everyday and institutional settings: on the negotiation of resources, rights, and responsibilities in comforting actions
Editor(s) Elisabeth Reber, Cornelia Gerhardt
Tag(s) EMCA, Body orientation, Empathy, Affective responses
Publisher Palgrave Macmillan
Year 2019
Language English
City Cham
Month
Journal
Volume
Number
Pages 329–367
URL Link
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-97325-8_10
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title Embodied Activities in Face-to-Face and Mediated Settings: Social Encounters in Time and Space
Chapter 10

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Abstract

This paper investigates the multimodal resources used by participants for doing being empathic. Extracts from three different settings are discussed: mother-child play, elementary school, and a public political debate. The sequences consist of a display of physical or emotional discomfort and a responsive comforting action. In terms of resources deployed, the bodily dimension is particularly stressed: In specific sequential positions, comforting is achieved by reducing physical distance, establishing close body positions, and bodily contact. Comforting is then ‘embodied’. Such sequences bring larger activities to a halt: When physical or emotional distress is brought up in interaction, the business of ‘treating the participant’s distress’ seems to become ‘the main job’. Only when this job is jointly treated as accomplished can the overall social activity be pursued.

Notes