From Figuration to Coordination : An Analysis of Social Interdependence Mechanisms.

In this text I take up different theoretical issues related to the notion of figuration, probing the fault lines and less-than-conscious assumptions underlying that notion. The analysis proceeds by relating the notion of figuration with what I see as the similar one of "coordination." I explore the micro, meso and macro foundations of figurations without any presupposition that social relations can be reduced to competition. At the end of a trajectory that includes an encounter with Goffmanian sociological tradition, cognitive sociology and certain aspects of the neurosciences, I define a multi-level approach that makes it possible to identify social interdependence mechanisms and thereby to answer the questions that Elias left hanging