ETHNOMETHODOLOGY

Ethnomethodology

Table of Contents

Introduction3

Discussion3

Distinctive Features4

Examples5

Evaluation6

Debate And Controversies7

The Major Characteristics Of Ethnomethodology7

Key Figures8

Some Fundamental Points8

Conclusion10

References11

Ethnomethodology

Introduction

Study of the methods or rules that individuals use to accomplish their daily actions and make sense of their social world. Ethnomethodology literally means 'people's methods' but may be more fully translated as 'the study of people's methods for making sense of the world'. The central aim for ethnomethodologists is to describe and analyse the practical procedures that members use to make sense of the social world. The intention is to focus upon identifying and understanding the methods which people employ to decide whether or not something is real. This paper discusses “Ethnomethodology” and the most significant aspects of the ethnomethodological orientation.

Discussion

Ethnomethodology explores the interpretative processes individuals use to negotiate their way through the every day. Throughout our day we interact with our parents, friends, the check-out person at the grocery store. We make judgements, sometimes conscious but mainly subconscious, about how we should act and what we should say. We generally do this without too much stress because we're socialized with appropriate 'methods' (i.e. rules, norms, and patterns that help us wade through such interactions). For example, say someone comes up to you and says, 'I could not help but notice you'. To make sense of this you would look for cues, find a 'pattern', and formulate an appropriate response. So, if you were in a nightclub and the person speaking to you was of the opposite sex, the pattern might be 'the pick-up'. You might reply with a disgusted, 'get lost, you loser' or a seductive, 'yeah. I noticed you too'. The other party then has to recognize the pattern that is building, in this case 'rejection' or 'flirtation', and form the appropriate response. You then use that response to generate your next response, and so on and so forth until the interaction ends. (Francis 2004, 12-15)



Distinctive Features

Ethnomethodology is a branch of sociology usually associated with Harold Garfinkel, although the starting point is in the phenomenological writings of Alfred Schutz, since ethnomethodology might be deemed to be an exploration of the implications of Schutz's arguments about the nature of social knowledge.

Ethnomethodology also has similarities with symbolic “interactionism” which is concerned with the ways in which people define and share meanings of the social world through interaction. Like symbolic “interactionism”, ethnomethodology is also concerned with interactions, but ethnomethodology focuses on the methods by which people make sense of social worlds. (Have 2004, 36-40)

Ethnomethodologists examine the ways in which people go about their daily lives (at work, at home, at leisure etc.). Ethnomethodologists argue that in order to organize action, people need to make successive decisions as to what is 'unquestionably true' for them. Popular examples are that if people switch their computer on it is unquestionably true that poisonous gas will not emit from the hard disc, or if they make a cup of coffee it is unquestionably true that they will find it bitter without ...