123 THE SEQUENTIAL PRODUCTION OF SOCIAL ACTS IN CONVERSATION Human Studies 23: 123–144, 2000. © 2000 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. The Sequential Production of Social Acts in Conversation WOLFGANG LUDWIG SCHNEIDER University of Giessen, 35394 Giessen, Germany Abstract. With reference to Mead, Peirce, speech act theory, conversation analysis, and Luhmann’s phenomenological grounded version of systems theory, the paper tries to reconstruct actions as products of communication. A triadic sequence is identified as the elementary unit for the intersubjective constitution of an act. This unit combines three achievements: (a) the constitution of meaning by sequential attribution, (b) the intersubjective coordination of attributed meanings, and (c) the reproduction of rules, guiding the process of constitution and coordination of attributed meanings. Then, using the tools of systems theory and applying them to empirical results of ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, it is shown how the rule scheme is integrated in a triadic sequence, functioning on three different levels of communication. Finally, a specific form of repair after next turn is discussed, relating it to the function of preserving the structure of conversational types. The analysis of such conversational types opens a possible realm of cooperation between conversation analysis and Luhmann’s version of systems theory. Introduction Sociology is concerned with the investigation of human action. This is a commonplace statement. But already the question of what an act is leads into a realm of theoretical controversy. The sociological as well as the philosophical theory of action in its mainstream still analyzes action as intentional behavior. 1 According to this view mentally constituted actions are thought to be the basic units of the social process. 2 Actions become ‘socialized’ by implementing references to social objects in their subjectively intended meaning. The social dimension comes into play by an actor’s orientation to the expectations or actions of other actors. If we ask how it is possible that actors are able or develop the ability to anticipate the expectations of others and to guess successfully their meaning intentions, we have to deal with communication. But communication itself seems to be possible if and only if individual subjects are able to understand the intended meaning of some other’s utterance. Social action and communication refer to each other. The close interrelation between both concepts needs further inspection. There are two basic positions in sociological theorizing that differ in respect to the candidate to be chosen for the role of the leading concept within this interrelation: