How are worlds communicatively constituted?

Social constructionists maintain that human beings constitute social worlds in communicating, yet have noted a paucity of research on the processes involved. One promising conceptual approach for advancing such research frames recurrent everyday interacting in small scale social worlds, over time and space, as the essential component in constituting large scale social worlds. Drawing on a recent theoretical model, as two participants engage social practices and meanings in everyday interacting, they communicatively constitute interpretings of one another’s utterances that are emergent properties defining their dyad as a small, complex social system. In turn, as participants engage recurrently in everyday interacting with a wider range of persons, over time and space, using specific sets of social practices and meanings, the interpretings they communicatively constitute are emergent properties that define specific groups as large, complex social systems.