Three orders in the organization of human action: On the interface between knowledge, power, and emotion in interaction and social relations

• Published in: Language in society Vol. 43; no. 2; pp. 185 - 207
• Main Authors: Stevanovic, Melisa, Peräkylä, Anssi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, USA Cambridge University Press 01.04.2014
• Subjects: Acknowledgment; Action; Ambiguity; Conversation; Conversation Analysis; Conversational Analysis; Emotion recognition; Emotional expression; Emotions; Epistemology; Humanity; Humans; Hymns; Interdisciplinary aspects; Interpersonal Communication; Interpersonal relations; Interpersonal Relationships; Knowledge; Language; Negotiation; Pastors; Power; Pragmatics; Recognition; Rights; Social Factors; Social interaction; Social life & customs; Social relations; Sociolinguistics; Teasing
• ISSN: 0047-4045; 1469-8013
• DOI: 10.1017/S0047404514000037

All social life is based on people's ability to recognize what others are doing. Recently, the mechanisms underlying this human ability have become the focus of a growing multidisciplinary interest. This article contributes to this line of research by considering how people's orientations to who they are to each other are built-in in the organization action. We outline a unifying theoretical framework in which the basic facets of human social relations are seen as being anchored in three orders—epistemic order, deontic order, and emotional order—each of which, we argue, also pertains to action recognition. This framework allows us to account for common ambiguities in action recognition and to describe relationship negotiations involving a complex interface between knowledge, power, and emotion. (Action recognition, social relations, conversation analysis, status, stance, epistemic rights, deontic rights, emotion)*