COVID-19 and the Transformations of the Interaction Order: Patternization and De-Ritualization of Social Interactions

This chapter explores what cultural transformations the COVID-19 pandemic has brought and may bring in the near future to the interaction order. This question arises from two observations. First, the outbreak of the pandemic introduced obvious limitations and precautions for social interactions, transforming several situational practices that we largely took for granted. Second, the main theories of interaction have never thoroughly considered the effects of a pandemic on transformations to the social order. The reason for this lack of theoretical elaboration is arguably historical. Approaching the topic from a Goffmanian perspective. I consider two tendencies that characterize the present time and represent possible challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic on the interaction order: (a) the patternization of social behaviors in public and (b) the de-ritualization of social interactions. As I will explain in the conclusion, I do not support a deterministic stance. Rather, patternization and de-ritualization could be considered interesting tendencies, as they show how societies react to critical events by a more or less temporary increase in the regulation of and control over the interaction order.