Double contingency

From Geography

The term double contingency refers to the fact that when one communicates the one always has to take into account the way the communication will be received. Concerning communication there will always be a sender and a receiver. Without taking into account the way communication will be received by the receiver miscommunication can easily happen. By miscommunication is meant that the message the sender wants to send is received in a different way. For example think of the way you can complement one in the Netherlands. One way to do that is giving someone the thumbs up. However in some other countries giving someone the thumbs up has a total different (negative) meaning. In this example the intention (meaning) of the sender can be received in a total different way by the receiver.

Besides the miscommunication possibility double contingency also refers to the necessary of more than one person to communicate and from here create social interaction. Concerning the theory of double contingency one can look at the way a relationship between two persons (and their communication) is build up and influenced.

SOURCES

Vanderstraeten,R. Parsons, Luhmann and the Theorem of Double Contingency,2002 Consulted: 21 October 2010 http://jcs.sagepub.com/content/2/1/77.full.pdf+html

Ritzer,G.,Goodmman,D.,Sociological theory, 2003 Consulted: 21 October 2010 http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072817186/student_view0/chapter9/chapter_summary.html

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