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Presentification
Smith
Routledge eBooks4 Sep 2026Open access
Presentification
Smith · Routledge eBooks · 4 Sep 2026
Abstract
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The concept of presentification is used in communication constitutes organisation (CCO) studies to explain a key dimension of the production of authority: how absent things are made present, communicatively, to direct situations. It can also be used to explain how expectations about ongoingness are generated, i.e. how a situation acquires a sense of direction. This chapter distinguishes two practices of presentification: translocal presentification occurs when distant things are convoked to make a difference to the situation; hyperlocal presentification occurs when beings make their own presences felt in a process of mutual adjustment. Both practices play key roles in the production of epistemic and deontic authority, especially in relation to the arrangement of ongoingness, since the objects they introduce (in the translocal case) or atmospheres and rhythms they induce (in the hyperlocal case) generate action-oriented expectations about what to do next and who gets to decide. The affordances of this novel distinction are explored by re-analysing an interactive sequence previously analysed by CCO scholars to show how hyperlocal interruptions of a predominantly translocal dispute affect the ability of disputing parties to achieve coorientation. While coorientation is usually accomplished transactionally through language, a ‘mooded’ form of coorientation can significantly shape attitude alignment.