Publication 2396

Elaborating a model first presented in Uryu, Steffensen, and Kramsch (2014), the article discusses two conceptualizations of time and time scales in human interaction. One takes a starting point in a scalar hierarchy of tiered time scales and the other starts from a specification hierarchy of temporal ranges. While the time scales of the former by definition are observer-dependent, those of the latter relate the temporal dynamics of complex dialogical systems (Steffensen, 2012) to a series of causal frames, including physical, biological, social, cognitive and interactional constraints. Being the outcome of an evolutionary trajectory towards growing complexity, these constraints are the enabling conditions of human interaction, and as such they give rise to multistable dialogical systems. While this article focuses on the presentation of an ecological model of temporal ranges and time scales, its methodological implications and interpretive potentials are explored in Pedersen and Steffensen (2014).

Key words: time scales, temporal ranges, temporal dynamics, interactivity, interaction, dialogical system, multistability