Abstract
Concepts of space are fundamental to our understanding of human action and interaction. The common sense concept of uniform, metric, physical space is inadequate for design. It fails to capture features of social norms and practices that can be critical to the success of a technology. The concept of ‘place’ addresses these limitations by taking account of the different ways a space may be understood and used. This paper argues for the importance of a third concept: communication space. Motivated by Heidegger’s discussion of ‘being-with’ this concept addresses differences in interpersonal ‘closeness’ or mutual-involvement that are a constitutive feature of human interaction. We apply the concepts of space, place and communication space to the analysis of a corpus of interactions from an online community, ‘Walford’, which has a rich communicative ecology. A novel measure of sequential integration of conversational turns is proposed as an index of mutal-involvement. We demonstrate systematic differences in mutual-involvement that cannot be accounted for in terms of space or place and conclude that a concept of communication space is needed to address the organisation of human encounters in this community.
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Notes
For expository reasons we use ‘human being’ rather than Heidegger’s term ‘Dasein’. This risks confusing Heidegger’s position but is intended to make the discussion more accessible.
It is worth noting that this defines a key divide between Heideggerian and Husserlian phenomenology and, consequently, distinguishes Heidegger’s account of ‘being-with’ from Schutz’s concept of ‘reciprocity of perspectives’ (Schutz 1954). Schutz’s concept is intended as a practical ‘idealised’ solution to the problem of how inter-subjectivity is possible. This view has in turn influenced CSCW through the ethnomethodologcial tradition.
It should be noted at the outset that the match is not exact. For example, Harisson and Dourish highlight relational orientation and reciprocity as a feature of their concept of space. For Heidegger these are aspects of ‘place’ and the organization of equipment into ‘regions’ (see e.g., Being and Time §§22–23).
Heidegger’s term equipment here does not refer just to tools engineered for some purpose. It is intended to highlight the way in which all objects, including sticks and rocks, are primarily encountered in terms of their (in)appropriatness as ‘equipment’ for particular activities.
Heidegger does not discuss solicitude in terms of ‘spatiality’. We adopt this usage here to make the connection to the concept of ‘communication space’ clear.
Some documentation for TinyMUD can be found at http://www.mudmagic.com/codes/server-snippet/2144.
All references to full names and addresses are removed from the BNC corpus and after each conversation. All participants are advised they have been recorded and if they are unhappy about the recording it can be erased.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Ivan Leudar, Greg Mills and Chrystie Myketiak and the anonymous referees for their comments on earlier drafts. We are also grateful to the residents of Walford for giving us access to their community.
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Healey, P.G.T., White, G., Eshghi, A. et al. Communication Spaces. Comput Supported Coop Work 17, 169–193 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10606-007-9061-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10606-007-9061-4