Face-to-Face Interaction in History:

Refraiming the Problem

Abstract

The current pandemic has shown how important face-to-face interaction is for individuals and societies. Nevertheless, historical research has so far largely ignored the key role of presence and its history. Against this background, the article first illustrates that the concept of presence is more presuppositional than one might think. Second, it outlines a concept of interaction regimes, which will subsequently be applied in an exemplary fashion to the history of international politics since the twentieth century.