Social situations were classically defined by physical copresence and witnessability.

Evidence

Goffman defined the situation as “any physical area anywhere within which two or more persons find themselves in visual and aural range of one another” (1972, p. 63; 1981, p. 84). Ethnomethodologists have expressed similar ideas through the notion of the local accomplishment of social order, in which “local” means witnessable, through seeing or hearing, in contrast to imputed or inferred. — Karin Knorr Cetina & Urs Bruegger, Global Microstructures, 21

Categorization

• DEFINE: Precise anchors for ‘situation’ (Goffman) and ‘local’ as witnessable by sight/hearing — the baseline the chapter then extends to global settings.
• XREF: connects to: Law’s meaning requires participant-spectators whose presence makes its motion meaningful. — Philip Chase Bobbitt, Reflections Inspired by My Critics, 485; The situation is constituted from Others’ meanings rather than from being itself — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 444; Social relations are constituted through mediating processes — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 667

Broader Connections

• The situation is constituted from Others’ meanings rather than from being itself #expands (0.78) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 444
• Law’s meaning requires participant-spectators whose presence makes its motion meaningful. #qualifies (0.75) — Philip Chase Bobbitt, Reflections Inspired by My Critics, 485
• Social relations are constituted through mediating processes #expands (0.72) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 667