Interpersonal Communication and Social Interaction

The section focuses on the study of human interaction and human communicative behavior.

The core is constituted of contacts and bonds between people, whether in private or public contexts, whether face-to-face or through various communication technologies. The research fields and theory development areas of interpersonal communication and social interaction are wide-ranging. They include interpersonal relationships, relationship formation, development and termination, group and team communication, conversational organisation, verbal and nonverbal communication, public speaking, radio and television performance, rhetoric, argumentation, persuasion and mutual influence, communicative competence and interpersonal skill, ethnography of speaking, and other related approaches to human social interaction. All kinds of contexts are welcome (e.g., family, work, instructional, political, health), as are all methodologies (qualitative, quantitative, mixed). The ECREA Section for Interpersonal Communication and Social Interaction aims at developing and fostering research and theory construction in the field in all European countries.

The purposes of the section are as follows:

1. To provide a European forum for information exchange, discussion and collaboration of scholars interested in the field.
2. To stimulate research and scholarship in the field.
3. To develop research and methodological advancement in the field.
4. To encourage doctoral students and junior researchers.
5. To discuss instructional and educational matters in the field.
6. To collaborate with other sections in the ECREA.