ETHNOMETHODOLOGY

Sociologyindex, Sociology Books 2011, Ethnomethodology, Mundane Reasoning, Membership categorization, Conversational Analysis, Accounting, Indexicality, Reflexivity

Ethnomethodology is a sociological theory developed by Harold Garfinkel and building on the influence of phenomenologists such as Edmund Husserl and Alfred Schutz and more recent linguistic philosophers.

The fundamental sociological phenomenon for ethnomethodologists is the social fact. 'Ethnomethodology' means the study of people's practices or methods.

Recognising everyday life as an achievement, collective sense making, and the central importance of talk as a social process, ethnomethodology had an impact on all those arenas of sociology where ordinary interaction is an element.

Ethnomethodology is a perspective within sociology that focuses on the way people make sense of their everyday world.

There are three central strands to ethnomethodology: mundane reason analysis, membership categorization and conversational (or sequential) analysis. This is a micro-perspective and it does not see the social world as an objective reality but as something that people must build and rebuild constantly in their thoughts and actions.

Rather than treating ordinary members of society as ‘cultural dopes’, driven by society, it tries to uncover the methods and practices that are used by people as they create the taken-for-granted-world.

Ethnomethodology and sociology: an introduction
Stephen Linstead, University of York
Abstract: Arising as a powerful challenge to programmatic views of sociology that sought to determine stable laws underpinning social order, ethnomethodology set out an alternative programme to reveal social order as a dynamic, contingent 'ongoing accomplishment'. This programme was neither micro nor macro, but was concerned with different contexts of accountability in which both individuals and institutions are given identity and reproduced. Recognising everyday life as an achievement, collective sense making, and the central importance of talk as a social process, ethnomethodology had an impact on all those arenas of sociology where ordinary interaction is an element. This introduction to the special section discusses the contributions of each of the papers – which cover mundane reasoning, social learning, the early acquisition of social competence, and the application of membership categorization analysis to gender – in relation to the continuing relevance of Garfinkel's legacy to contemporary sociological theory and practice.

Garfinkel, Harold. 1984. Studies in Ethnomethodology. Malden MA: Polity Press/Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 0745600050
Garfinkel, Harold. 1986. Ethnomethodological Studies of Work. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. ISBN 071009664X
Garfinkel, Harold. 2002. Ethnomethodology's Program. New York: Rowan and Littlefield. ISBN 0742516423
Sacks, Harvey. 1992. Lectures on Conversation. Oxford:Blackwell. ISBN 1557867054

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