Abstract
In this article, I identify “spontaneity” as a significant but poorly-analyzed term in social theory and description through an overview of tensions between varying technical accounts of spontaneity in research literature. In contrast to conceptually-slippery “realist” accounts of spontaneity, I argue for viewing spontaneity ethnomethodologically, i.e., as a contextually-emergent social practice. I suggest two directions for future applications of this approach: first, an ethnomethodological approach to rhetorical analysis of unanalyzed use of the term “spontaneity” in research literature, and second, observational studies of improvisational theatre, a social practice in which orientation toward the production of spontaneity by participants is criterial to the identity of the practice.
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Acknowledgements
Special thanks are due to Nathan Stucky, Susan Benson, Suzanne Daughton, Jonathan Gray, Rachel Alicia Griffin and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on earlier drafts of this article.
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Zaunbrecher, N.J. Viewing Spontaneity Ethnomethodologically. Hum Stud 41, 1–20 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10746-017-9442-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10746-017-9442-8