Cooperation as communicative accomplishment: A symbolic interaction analysis of an improvised Jazz Concert

Abstract

Weick (1983) suggests that understanding prototypical cases of organizational communication increases our understanding beyond the event itself. In Weick (1990) he further argues that the jazz orchestra is one such case. Following Weick's call, this is a study of a jazz concert performed by a zero‐history group of seasoned professionals. The performance was videotaped, and one of the musicians acted as a participant‐informant, explaining instant‐by‐instant interpretive processes through the course of the concert. The two forms of data, videotape and participant‐informant, are analyzed in light of Couch's (1986) theory of elementary forms and Miller, Hintz, and Couch's (1975) theory of the elements of sociation.