Multiactivity

Encyclopedia of Terminology for CA and IL: Multiactivity
Author(s):	Pentti Haddington (University of Oulu, Finland) (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4378-4450)
To cite:	Haddington, Pentti. (2023). Multiactivity. In Alexandra Gubina, Elliott M. Hoey & Chase Wesley Raymond (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Terminology for Conversation Analysis and Interactional Linguistics. International Society for Conversation Analysis (ISCA). DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/D89EP

The term multiactivity refers to the ways in which people talk and interact when coordinating or advancing (or not) two or more courses of action simultaneously and with respect to each other (Haddington et al., 2014). The simultaneous progression of several activities can involve different interactional resources, such as talk or visible, embodied conduct. The simultaneous activities can be both interactional (e.g., a participant is engaged in two conversations that involve different people), or one activity can be interactional (a conversation) while the other is progressed manually (e.g., driving or cooking). Analytically, research on multiactivity focuses on how two or more activities become intertwined and co-relevant for participants in interaction, and how participants coordinate the activities through talk and embodied actions (Haddington et al., 2014; Mondada, 2011, 2014).

Conversation Analysis has studied multiactivity from three perspectives:

(i) It has identified and described practices that participants rely on to coordinate simultaneously progressing activities. It has shown how participants use suspensions for halting an activity in favour of another (e.g., Keisanen et al., 2014) and how participants resume a suspended activity (Sutinen, 2014). Participants may also account for the inability to progress two or more activities simultaneously (Vatanen & Haddington, 2021). These practices are used to coordinate the progression of different courses of action (see ii).

(ii) It has also addressed questions related to the temporal and sequential ordering of multiple activities by studying how participants time and order two or more courses of action with respect to each other (Mondada 2011, 2014). Parallel order refers to ways in which two or more activities are carried out simultaneously so that one activity does not interfere with the progression of another (Mondada 2014: 47-50). This is illustrated in the following excerpt from an interaction inside a car. In the excerpt, the driver (MAR) will soon drop off a passenger (JON) and then continue the journey. The excerpt shows how the driving activity, and steps involved in the car’s arrival and the stop, is coordinated in parallel with the closing of the conversation (see Haddington, 2019).

(1) Parallel order ('Habitable Cars', data courtesy of Eric Laurier)

The excerpt shows how the driving activity, and steps involved in the car’s arrival and the stop, is coordinated in parallel with the closing of the conversation. For example, the pre-closing sequence in a closing (lines 2-4) tends to follow closing-implicative signals – such as the use of the indicator or slowing down of the vehicle – that indicate the approaching stop. Passengers also tend to release their seatbelt close to the first pre-closing token (line 2) to start preparing to leave the car before the terminal exchange (lines 5-6). The terminal exchange is usually timed with the car’s stop and the passenger stepping out of the car (lines 5-6). Such ordering is possible, because progressing the activities is not reliant on the same interactional or embodied resources. The parallel ordering of the activities also accomplishes a smooth stop-and-go and minimizes the time needed for the drop-off.

Embedded order refers to ways in which several activities are advanced simultaneously so that they alternate with each other and influence each other’s progression (Mondada 2014: 50–64). The following excerpt comes also from a car. The driver is taking four children to a play date. Two of the children (MAC, sitting in the front seat and MAR, sitting in the back) are talking about trading cards (see lines 2, 8). The car is moving slowly in congested traffic. While driving the car, LIZ is on the phone, engages in a search for a pen and requests MAC to write down an address on a piece of paper. These courses of action have their own temporal and sequential trajectories, but they also impact and are adjusted with respect to each other in different ways.

(2) Embedded order ('Habitable Cars', data courtesy of Eric Laurier)

The excerpt illustrates different ways in which the activities of driving, phoning, searching and talking are embedded with respect to each other. For example, in lines 1-3, that the traffic slows down and stops offers the driver a possibility to start searching for the pen (Figures 1 and 2). After this, while the driver opens the arm rest compartment (line 7) and looks into it (line 8), which delays her noticing of the traffic starting to move again (line 9, Figure 4). The searching activity thus occasions a brief delay in continuing the driving after the cars in front have already started moving. At the same time, the searching activity is suspended for the benefit of the driving activity. Furthermore, the driver quickly switches between talking to the person on the phone (lines 1, 3) and producing a request to her daughter in the car (line 4, Figure 3), and again listening to the person on the phone and responding to what they have said (line 11). The driver thus progresses two conversational courses of action simultaneously, but makes quick switches between them. Relatedly, one activity (e.g., the search for the pen) can be inserted into another (the driving activity) and at the same time be momentarily prioritised over the other. Finally, embedded ordering of multiple activities often involves various kinds of microadjustments. These become evident in the advancement of talk and action, for example, in form of perturbations, hitches and delays and other forms of discontinuities.

Finally, exclusive order refers to ways in which participants halt an activity temporarily or abandon it for good (Mondada, 2014: 64-68). In the next excerpt (see Vatanen and Haddington, 2022), a mother is driving in a car with two children who are sitting in the backseat. Kel’s hand is bleeding, and she asks Mum, who is simultaneously driving and approaching a junction, to look at it.

(3) Exclusive order ('Habitable Cars', data courtesy of Eric Laurier)

Mum’s response (line 13) suspends the granting of Kel’s request and accounts for the suspension and missing response. The turn thus communicates the exclusive order between the driving activity and responding to the request, prioritizing the first. The account also verbalizes when a resumption will take place and the request will be granted.

In general, this line of research on multiactivity has shown how courses of action coexist, interconnect and shape each other’s trajectories in different ways (Mondada, 2019: 49–50). By coordinating multiple activities in different ways, participants also display how they prioritise and hierarchise separate activities with respect to each other (Kamunen, 2020)

(iii) It has shown how participants allocate verbal, vocal and embodied resources to coordinate and progress multiple activities (Deppermann, 2014; Haddington & Rauniomaa, 2011) or release them from one activity to another (Nishizaka, 2014). It has also explored how activities may compete over the same resources (e.g., visual and tactile) and thus require coordination (e.g., Licoppe & Tuncer, 2014)

Together, these three perspectives to the study multiactivity show how participants coordinate and progress several activities with respect to each other through talk and embodiment and how multiple interactional demands affect the organisation of interaction.

Additional Related Entries:

• Activity
• Embodiment
• Interactional space
• Materiality
• Multimodality

Cited References:

Deppermann, A. (2014). Multi-modal participation in simultaneous joint projects: Inter-personal and intra-personal coordination in paramedic emergency drills. In P. Haddington, T. Keisanen, L. Mondada, & M. Nevile (Eds.), Multiactivity in social interaction: Beyond multitasking (pp. 247-281). John Benjamins.

Haddington, P. (2019). Leave-taking as multiactivity: Coordinating conversational closings with driving in cars. Language and Communication, 65, 58-78.

Haddington, P., Keisanen, T., Mondada, L., & Nevile, M. (2014). Towards multiactivity as a social and interactional phenomenon. In P. Haddington, T. Keisanen, L. Mondada, & M. Nevile (Eds.), Multiactivity in social interaction: Beyond multitasking (pp. 3–32). John Benjamins.

Haddington, P., & Rauniomaa, M. (2011). Technologies, multitasking and driving: Attending to and preparing for a mobile phone conversation in the car. Human Communication Research, 37, 223-254.

Kamunen, A. (2020). Busy embodiments: The hierarchisation of activities in multiactivity situations. University of Oulu.

Keisanen, T., Rauniomaa, M., & Haddington, P. (2014). Suspending action: From simultaneous to consecutive ordering of multiple courses of action. In P. Haddington, T. Keisanen, L. Mondada, & M. Nevile (Eds.), Multiactivity in Social Interaction: Beyond Multitasking (pp. 110–133). John Benjamins.

Licoppe, C., & Tuncer, S. (2014). Attending to a summons and putting other activities ‘on hold’: Multiactivity as a recognisable interactional accomplishment. In P. Haddington, T. Keisanen, L. Mondada, & M. Nevile (Eds.), Multiactivity in social interaction: Beyond multitasking (pp. 167-190). John Benjamins.

Mondada, L. (2011). The organization of concurrent courses of action in surgical demonstrations. In C. Goodwin, C. LeBaron, & J. Streeck (Eds.), Embodied Interaction: Language and Body in the Material World (pp. 207-226). Cambridge University Press.

Mondada, L. (2014). The temporal orders of multiactivity: Operating and demonstrating in the surgical theatre. In P. Haddington, T. Keisanen, L. Mondada, & M. Nevile (Eds.), Multiactivity in social interaction: Beyond multitasking (pp. 33-75). John Benjamins.

Mondada, L. (2019). Contemporary issues in conversation analysis: Embodiment and materiality, multimodality and multisensoriality in social interaction. Journal of Pragmatics, 145, 47-62. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2019.01.016

Nishizaka, A. (2014). Sustained orientation to one activity in multiactivity during prenatal ultrasound examinations. In P. Haddington, T. Keisanen, L. Mondada, & M. Nevile (Eds.), Multiactivity in Social Interaction: Beyond multitasking (pp. 79-107). John Benjamins.

Sutinen, M. (2014). Negotiating favourable conditions for resuming suspended activities. In P. Haddington, T. Keisanen, L. Mondada, & M. Nevile (Eds.), Multiactivity in social interaction: Beyond multitasking (pp. 137-165). John Benjamins.

Vatanen, A., & Haddington, P. (2023). Multiactivity in adult-child interaction: accounts resolving conflicting courses of action in request sequences. Text & Talk, 43(2), 263-290.

Additional References:

De Stefani, E., & Horlacher, A.-S. (2018). Mundane talk at work: Multiactivity in interactions between professionals and their clientele. Discourse Studies, 20(2), 221-245.

Due, B. L. (2015). The social construction of a Glasshole: Google Glass and multiactivity in social interaction. PsychNology Journal, 13(2-3), 149-178.

Eilittä, T., Haddington, P., Kamunen, A., Kohonen-Aho, L., Rautiainen, I., & Vatanen, A. (in press). On the Complexities of Interaction: An Introduction. In Haddington, P., T. Eilittä, A. Kamunen, L. Kohonen-Aho, I. Rautiainen, & A. Vatanen. Complexity of Interaction: Studies in Multimodal Conversation Analysis. Palgrave-Macmillan.

Haddington, P., Keisanen, T., Mondada, L., & Nevile, M. (Eds.). (2014a). Multiactivity in social interaction: Beyond multitasking. John Benjamins.

Harrison, S., & Williams Robert, F. (2017). Monitoring the swimzone while finding south: sustained orientation in multiactivity among beach lifeguards. Text & Talk, 37, 683-711.

Helisten, M. (2019). Disjunctively Positioned Problem-Noticings in Managing Multiactivity. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 52(4), 318-342.

Kamunen, A. (2019). How to Disengage: Suspension, Body Torque, and Repair. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 1-21.

Krug, M. (2022). Gleichzeitigkeit in der Interaktion: Strukturelle (In)Kompatibilität bei Multiaktivitäten in Theaterproben. De Gruyter.

Mondada, L. (2012). Talking and driving: multi-activity in the car. Semiotica, 191(1/4), 223-256.

Ticca, A. C. (2014). Managing multiactivity in a travel agency: Making phone calls while interacting with customers. In P. Haddington, T. Keisanen, L. Mondada, & M. Nevile (Eds.), Multiactivity in social interaction: Beyond multitasking (pp. 191-223). John Benjamins.