Reconceptualizing presence as an interactional practice in video-mediated professional encounters

This paper revisits the concept of presence in video-mediated professional interaction. Rather than treating presence as a cognitive state or technological effect, we conceptualize it as a situated, multimodal, and interactionally accomplished phenomenon. Drawing on ethnomethodological conversation analysis (EMCA), we analyze video-recorded interactions across institutional settings in healthcare, social work, and international business. Through abductive analysis of participants’ practices, we identify four interdependent dimensions of presence: infrastructural-spatial (material calibration and responsiveness across ecologies), embodied-visual (managing visibility and perceptual access), relational (interpersonal attunement and other-involvement), and sequential (timely and fitted contributions to interactional progression). These dimensions emerge from systematic analysis of participants’ practices for managing turn-taking and embodied conduct within fractured ecologies. The paper offers a grounded framework for understanding presence as practical interactional work, with implications for both mediated and face-to-face professional encounters.