Joint Action & Collaborative Meaning Making

Joint action is the necessity of more than one agent in the collaborative creation of action. For example, if I'm having a conversation with a colleague that is an action involving two people it could not happen independently. Joint action is a shared meaning making process. It happens organically and is in response to unexpected stimuli (ie. a person's speech/answer to your question). If for example I am leaving a job interview and the interviewer shakes my hand and says 'congratulations you've got the job!' I might smile and shake his hand enthusiastically before leaving and saying 'See you soon! Happy to be joining the team!'. That action would be entirely different if he said 'I'm sorry but based on your qualifications, I don't think you're suitable for the position'. The same reaction would not be appropriate, I would instead have a very different exit. That exit could not be an entirely independent action because my interviewer and I shared a meaningful interaction to which a meaningful and appropriate exit follows. We were both involved in that process.