Situations as Relational Presences

What is a situation? For good reasons, (micro)sociological approaches focus on different aspects, elements, and perspectives. However, the polyphony can be confusing and prevent a fruitful dialog between theories and disciplines. Therefore, we aim to provide an integrative concept: drawing on phenomenological and interactionist understandings of “the situation,” we conclude that what is crucial are the emerging relations of forms of presence, leading to an understanding of situations as relational presences. To this end, we distinguish dimensions of presence, and forms of presence, and formulate a heuristic as a tool for precisely naming the constituent conditions of situations and their different levels.