Author ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4757-4082
Abstract
What does it take to participate in direct, naturally occurring social interaction? Conversation analytic (CA) studies reveal that “participation”—who participates, when, and how—is dynamic and locally, multimodally achieved by the people involved. Particularly in social situations when people are concurrently accessible to one another’s naked senses (Goffman, 1964), co-participation is enabled and performed through embodied and vocal resources including talk, gaze, facial displays, body orientation/posture, proximity, and gestures (e.g., M. H. Goodwin, 1999; C. Goodwin & M. H. Goodwin, 2005; Pillet-Shore, 2010; Sidnell, 2009). Using a multimodal CA lens, this chapter illuminates how “participation” is achieved in real-time, naturally occurring interaction. I first lay the conceptual foundations, delineating and defining key terms necessary to analyzing participation, particularly during in-person encounters. Then, I exemplify these basic concepts across four thematic, activity-based sections: (i) establishing co-participation; (ii) enabling newcomer co-participation; (iii) discouraging newcomer co-participation; and (iv) dissolving co-participation.
Date Created
1/15/2026
Department
Communication
Publication Date
2026
Journal Title
The Handbook of Conversation Analysis (2nd Edition)
Language
English
Publisher
Wiley
Document Type
Book Chapter
Recommended Citation
Pillet-Shore, D. (2026). Participation. Forthcoming chapter in Jack Sidnell & Tanya Stivers (Eds.), The Handbook of Conversation Analysis (2nd Edition). Wiley.
Comments
This is a preprint of a forthcoming book chapter to be published by Wiley in The Handbook of Conversation Analysis (2nd Edition) in 2026.