Joint Action

Joint action involves working together with one or more individuals, it is the outcome of social interaction. Joint action occurs in most conversations, when people are engaged in dialogue. The intentions of the participants are not completely predictable and the new interaction is greater than adding the parts together. The actions of the participants happen due to joint action. New things that were not predicable emerge. The thoughts and actions of each participant unravel because of the relationship between the participants. There cannot be a separation between the participants and the situation. The actions of the participants in an interaction are not necessarily predictable. An example of when I engaged in joint action was when I attended an event and met an individual who knew some of my friends. We talked about our relationship to our friends and other things we had in common and also became friends. Our becoming friends and having a large number of things in common was not predictable from just being two people attending the event and emerged from our interaction and dialogue. This is an example of joint action because the actions were not predictable and the interaction is greater than the addition of all of its parts.