Rhythm in and of Social Interaction: A Study in Intersubjectivity and Power

The chapter analyses rhythm in and of social interaction, and as an important part of its aesthetics. On the one hand, it discusses how the acoustic and rhythmical features of talk and other modalities of expression (e.g., gesture, movement) build to intersubjectivity—from primary socialization in childhood, to expert sophisticated practices in adulthood. On the other hand, it conceptualizes the aesthetics of interaction, including rhythm, as particularly suited and chiefly employed to display, perform, and put into being given social situations and given social relationships—it is about managing power and power relations. Moreover, a particular kind of power, i.e. charisma, is shown to be grounded in rhythm. By levering both extant literature and original empirical datasets analysed through the methods of ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, the chapter reads rhythm as one of the tools we use to produce interactional aesthetics. This allows bridging the conceptual and nonconceptual layers of interpersonal communication, thereby exploring the seemingly ungraspable nonconceptual dimension of group life and social ordering, including its “dark side”.