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S~Ci?L~Gy. Th~S ~Eans Dis~Iplin; Whic~ Contributors D. Lawrence Wieder is Associate Professor at the University of Oklahoma. He received his Ph.D. in 1969 from D.C.L.A. and has ETHNOMETHODOLOGY AND ETHNOSOCIOLOGY also taught at the University of Santa Barbara, California. His current work concerns the prospects of using phenomenological D. Lawrence Wieder methods for the clarification and further development of the University ofOklahoma, Norman foundations of the social sciences. These studies focus on intersubjectivity, communication, cultural objects, and animal Mid-American Review of Sociology, 1977, VoL 2, No.2:1-18 awareness. Understanding ethnomethodology seems to pose severe Melvin Oliver is currently a visiting assistant professor of Sociology problems for many social scientists. The discussions and critiques at the University of Missouri, St. Louis. He received a B.A. in o,f ethnom~th?dology ,by nonpractitioners are almost uniformly Sociology from William Penn College, and a M.A. and Ph.D, ~ VIewed by insiders as Incompetent, and that is often so for even Sociology from Washington University. He recently completed hIS the ~ympathetic discussants. It is my intention, here, to try to dissertation in the. area of sociology of sport. His.areas ofinterest provide the grounds for an intuitive grasp of what "classical" include: sociological theory, sociology of sport, and sociology of ethnomethodology 1 is about and to do so in a way in which it can th~ Black community. also be appreciated just why this discipline should be so difficult to grasp. One, of t~e difficulties in understanding Michael Stein is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Sociology at the ethnomethodology IS that It both involves a substantive area of University of Nebraska, Lincoln. He received his B.A. and M.A. in study, and its practice requires the use of a specific attitude or Sociology from Southern Illinois University. He has served as a posture which is related to but different from that of traditional teaching assistant at both institutions. General interests revolve s~ci?l~gy. Th~s ~eans that ethnomethodology is, in a sense, a around popular culture and its potential in sociological analysis. dIS~Iplin; whIC~ IS distinct from sociology, although both its On most autumn Saturday afternoons he may be found in section attitudes and Its subject matter are related to and relevant to the 12, row 71, seat 4. concerns ofsociology. G~fmke1 coined the term "ethnomethodology" (recounted Parviz Piran is a graduate student in sociology at the University of m Ga~nke1, 1974, pp. 15-18) after seeing interests cognate to his Kansas, where he has taught courses in sociology ofdevelopment, own m thedeve10ping "ethnosciences" of ethnobotany advanced sociology and currently social problems. He received a ethnomedicine, ethnopharmacology, ethnogeology, and the like.3' ·B.A~ msociology from the National University of Iran and a M.A., . It was the initiating .idea of ethnoscience and. some of its . .. ,. in sociology (social. psychology) .from.Morehead State University. descriptions which caught Garfinkel's attention and not the His areas of interest include: sociology' of development, political specific attitudes; orientations, theories, and methods which, in . economy, theoretical sociology and historical development of fa~t, markedly contrast with those of ethnomethodology (cf. modern capitalism. His works in progress include: Meanings of WIeder,. 1970; and Eglin, 1975). The initiating idea of the Rationality for Max Weber; Totalizing Social History: A Review of ethnosciences was the notion that the knowledge possessed by the Annales school; and Elites and Development in the Third members of some societies could be viewed as analogous to the World: A critical Review. knowledge systems of the sciences (cf. Sturtevant, 1964, pp. 91-100; Tyler, 1969, pp. 5-7). Along the same lines, one could also propose an Ethnomethodology and Ethnosociology Mid-American Review of Sociology activities, while others concern plans, forecasts, and prophesies, ethnosociology which inquires into folk. theories,. co~cept.s, and yet others recount precedents, histories, and memories. We methods of theorizing, and the like which are soclOloglcal m c~uld see childre~ discussing the differences between boys and character. For example, what forms of role theory, if any, are grrls and speculating on the likely adult careers of each of their employed by the members of some society, and ~ow do. these peers. We could see lovers gently or angrily explaining to one theories organize the world of roles as they are expenenced m that another how they were unavoidably late because of the patterns of society. In its relationship to the ethnosciences, ethnomethodology traffic on this particul~ day. We could s~e a parole officer writing is the general study of the methods employed in folk-disciplines of a report about the continued bad behavior of one of his parolees ethno-aisciplines. · :m~ just why it was to be expected that the parolee would behave The word "methods" in ethnomethodology means simply In Just that way. In various governmental meetings, we could see "methodology," as in the methods of science-chemistry, biology, assorted special~s:s.testifying about social and nonsocial objects, sociology even history, etc. Just as we have found analogues to e:e~ts, and activities in their society. For example, in the late botany in the field of study of ethnobotany, we can find sIXt~es. and early seventies, we could have seen sociologists analogues to scientific reasoning in the reasoning of "the testifying about the causes of violence in the ghettos, the patterns folk"-hence, we have ethnomethodology (see especially and consequences ofsmoking marijuana, and the known effects of Garfinkel, 1967, Chapts. 1,2,3,4, and 8). consuming pornography. Furthermore, in some ultimate sense, since the sciences are . Large portions of human activity are devoted to accounts. also social activities, they too are analyzable as ethno- or The amount of time that societal members devote to the folk-disciplines, so eventually a complete ethnomet~odology assimilation of, reflection upon, and production of accounts is would also describe and analyze the methods of the sciences as related to .their social,positions. It appears that all competent well. Indeed, one recent ethnomethodological study concerns the members, m Garfi~kel s. sense (1967, p. 57 ftn.), can give such situated methods and practices involved in using the microscope accounts. The SOCIally Incompetent are either unable to offer (Lynch,1974). .. accounts, e.g., the comatose, some catatonic schizophrenics and In order to clarify what ethnomethodology 18 about, It will t~e severely retarded, or their accounts are ignorable and be useful to exemplify the order of affairs that one sees if one discountable, e.g., the accounts of children, some of the insane, looks "ethnomethodologically" or "ethnosociologically." the less severely retarded, criminals, etc. On the other hand, the ac~ounts of some st?rytellers ar.e ~ccorded special warrant, e.g., AN EXAMPLE OF OBSERVING . pnests and shamans.in some societies and scientists. in others..The .. ETHNOMETHODOLOGICALLY_ETHNOSOCIOLOGICALLy~ .. history of' natural science, medicine, and current social science makes it clear, however, that these special claims are not-always If we~op~ a posture which provides us ·wlth some distance accepted. from the ordinary familiarity of the objects and events of o~r Since the stories of social scientists concern action and everyday lives and which is disconnected from the themat~c situations of action, they share content with the bulk of stories concerns and relevancies of that life, we might quickly see that m t~ld by everyday folk. On the one hand, social scientists are every society, and within every social ~c~ne within ~hose s~ieties, d~~ferentiated from laymen in that they appear to be more the nonverbal activities of the partlclpants are mtermlttendy, diligent, careful, and precise in gathering evidence and in their though frequently, punctuated with verbal accounts conc~rning an~yses (however, see Garfinkel, 1967, pp. 104-115), and in that those very same activites. Some of these accounts consist of their methods and their logic have been explicity codified. On the descriptions, evaluations, explanations, and analyses of current 3 2 Mid-American Review of Sociology Ethnomethodology and Ethnosociology other hand, there are many similarities between the stories of affairs as motivated. Accounts of motives and action take social scientists and others.i They even use some of the same characteristic form whenever humans explain, predict, justify, 0: concepts, and, from time to time, social scientists and others mer~ly make sensible some ac~ivity through the act of telling coul~: engage each other as equals and debate questions. w.e finally stones".Weber (1947) called this form of exposition a "correct note that social scientists are not always successful m gettmg their caus~ . Interpretation of action." Although he meant to be special claims accepted outside their own profession. The descr~b~ng the task of the scholar who is directed toward ~ecently responses of politicians and the public. to the explaInIng uniform patterns of behavior, as Schutz noted (1967 commissioned reports to Congressional committees on violence, p. ~32), the form of the story applies as well to the explanation~ pornography, and marijuana show this rather clearly. ordIn~ laymen offer of an individual's conduct. A "correct In both cases, human stories, told either by ordinary people causal Interpretation" shows how the behavior or action i s~ch ~lay or by those professionally charged with storytelling, question follows from, and can be predicted by, some particular similar roles. They are simultaneously stones about the society course of reasoning on the part of the acting individual. That and constituent events within it. Ethnomethodologists use the course of reasoning is typically described in terms ofmotives and term "reflexive" to refer to this feature of social accounts-that rules.
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