Social Interaction in Temporary Gatherings A Sociological Taxonomy of Groups and Crowds for Computer Vision Practitioners

The chapter focuses on sociological notions coming from both theory and detailed empirical analysis that can be embedded into computer vision methods and techniques. It offers, first, an overview on the sociological understandings of social interaction, thereby proposing a distinction between different kinds of interaction, namely unfocused, common-focused and jointly focused (cf. Goffman, 1961, 1966; Kendon, 1988). Second, drawing also on such a typology, it presents a taxonomy of small to large social gatherings --that is, groups and crowds-- and provides some clarifying examples. In doing so, it mainly draws from micro-sociological approaches such as interactionism (e.g., Goffman, Collins) and ethnomethodology and conversation analysis (EM/CA --e.g., Garfinkel, Sacks), and it focuses on those notions that can be more effectively employed in computer vision practices. Overall, the chapter offers a deepened and layered understanding of group and crowd behavior in everyday social interaction.