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Common Sense Knowledge of Social Structures (1959) Repositorium für die Medienwissenschaft Harold Garfinkel Common Sense Knowledge of Social Structures (1959). A Paper distributed at the Session on the Sociology of Knowledge, Fourth World Congress of Sociology, Stresa, Italy, September 12, 1959 2019 https://doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/13805 Veröffentlichungsversion / published version Working Paper Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: Garfinkel, Harold: Common Sense Knowledge of Social Structures (1959). A Paper distributed at the Session on the Sociology of Knowledge, Fourth World Congress of Sociology, Stresa, Italy, September 12, 1959. Siegen: Universität Siegen: SFB 1187 Medien der Kooperation 2019 (SFB 1187 Medien der Kooperation – Working Paper Series 11). DOI: https://doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/13805. Erstmalig hier erschienen / Initial publication here: https://doi.org/10.25819/ubsi/685 Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Dieser Text wird unter einer Creative Commons - This document is made available under a creative commons - Namensnennung - Nicht kommerziell - Keine Bearbeitungen 4.0/ Attribution - Non Commercial - No Derivatives 4.0/ License. For Lizenz zur Verfügung gestellt. Nähere Auskünfte zu dieser Lizenz more information see: finden Sie hier: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Harold Garfinkel Common Sense Knowledge of Social Structures (1959) A Paper distributed at the Session on the Sociology of Knowledge, Fourth World Congress of Sociology, Stresa, Italy, September 12, 1959 Edited by Christian Erbacher & Erhard Schüttpelz University of Siegen WORKING PAPER SERIES | NO. 11 | DECEMBER 2019 Collaborative Research Center 1187 Media of Cooperation Sonderforschungsbereich 1187 Medien der Kooperation Working Paper Series Collaborative Research Center 1187 Media of Cooperation Print-ISSN 2567–2509 The Working Papers are accessible via the website Online-ISSN 2567–2517 http://wp-series.mediacoop.uni-siegen.de or can be DOI https://doi.org/10.25819/ubsi/685 ordered in print by sending an email to: Handle https://dspace.ub.uni-siegen.de/handle/ubsi/1546 [email protected] URN urn:nbn:de:hbz:467-15467 Publication of the series is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). This work is licensed under the Creative Cover image is the title page of the Transactions of Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- the Fourth World Congress of Sociology, vol. IV, Lou- No Derivatives 4.0 International License. vain: International Sociological Association, 1961. This Working Paper Series is edited by the Collabora- Universität Siegen tive Research Center Media of Cooperation and serves SFB 1187 Medien der Kooperation as a platform to circulate work in progress or preprints Herrengarten 3 in order to encourage the exchange of ideas. Please 57072 Siegen, Germany contact the authors if you have any questions or com- www.sfb1187.uni-siegen.de ments. Copyright remains with the authors. [email protected] Harold Garfinkel Common Sense Knowledge of Social Structures (1959) A Paper distributed at the Session on the Sociology of Knowledge, Fourth World Congress of Sociology, Stresa, Italy, September 12, 1959 Edited by Christian Erbacher University of Siegen — [email protected] Erhard Schüttpelz University of Siegen — [email protected] Editorial Note Harold Garfinkel did indeed write a book proposal that mentions the paper written for the Fourth World The text presented here was written by Harold Gar- Congress of Sociology as a core chapter for a future finkel for the Fourth World Congress of Sociology in book publication. One version of this book proposal Stresa (Italy) in 1959, where Garfinkel participated (which can be found in the Garfinkel Archive at New- in the Section on the Sociology of Knowledge or- bury Port) summarizes the position of the Stresa Pa- ganized by Kurt Wolff. The “General Theme” of the per as follows: Fourth World Congress of Sociology was “Society Book in Preparation: COMMON SENSE ACTIONS and Sociological Knowledge / La Société et la Con- AND COMMON SENSE KNOWLEDGE OF SO- naissance Sociologique”. Garfinkel’s original Stresa CIAL STRUCTURES AS TOPIC AND FEATURE paper had to be “heavily abridged” for publication OF SOCIOLOGICAL INQUIRY (Garfinkel 1961). Garfinkel’s own editorial note in the I have been collecting materials for this book since published version refers to the full version by giving coming to UCLA in September 1954. The attached a list of what had to be omitted: papers, including the outline, are studies in prepa- This paper is heavily abridged from an 80-page ration for the book. In one way or another the gen- mimeographed version prepared for and distrib- eral topic and its specific sub-topics have informed uted at the session on the Sociology of Knowledgee, almost all my work as its central vision. My inter- Fourth World Congress of Sociology, Stresa, Italy, ests in the topic started when I was a graduate stu- September 12, 1959. Because of space limitations it dent at Harvard and was inspired by the writings of was necessary to omit materials dealing with the the late Alfred Schutz. general set ‘corpus of knowledge’; descriptions of The Paper, ‘Common Sense Knowledge of Social the work of the documentary method and a report Structures’, included in this package, was written of an experiment that permitted these workings to last summer for the meetings of the Fourth World be explored; Schutz’s descriptions of the attitude Congress of Sociology in the attempt to formulate of daily life; the problem of whether the documen- in a definitive fashion many of the book’s principal tary method is a necessary feature of sociological arguments. A long study that I have been writ- inquiry; the consequences for stable features of so- ing this year, ‘Linguistic Order, Language Games, cial structures of several types of transformations and Ethnoscience’ corrects some errors in this of the presuppositions of the corpus of common- paper, and completes its arguments by formulat- sense knowledge. These materials are treated at ing and solving the problem of literal description appropriate length in the author’s book in prepara- (evidence) in the events of human conduct. A final tion, ‘Common-Sense Actions as Topic and Feature paper on practical circumstances and rules that de- of Sociological Inquiry’. (Garfinkel 1961:51) 2 CRC Media of Cooperation Working Paper Series No. 11 December 2019 fine ‘good strategies’ in common sense situations of phenomenological analysis of the scientific study of choice, much of it based on the work of the polish social life that had come to us from him. One of us logician <sic>, Tadeucz Kotarbinski, remains to be who has learned from him and his work, Professor written. When this is done the main arguments will Harold Garfinkel, has dedicated his contribution to have been made and the final work toward publica- this volume to Alfred Schutz’s memory; and there tion will start. The attached papers on jurors are il- is some comfort, at least, in the fact that his prin- lustrative studies that bear on the topic of decision cipal work, Der sinnhafte Aufbau der sozialen Welt making and rules of ‘good decisions’ in practical (originally published in 1932 and long out of print), situations of choice. has been reissued, and in the plan for collecting his essays in volumes to be edited by one of his Materials include in addition to the materials of the students and friends, Professor Maurice Natanson. package about 340 pages of transcribed seminar (Wolff 1961:viii) discussions of various topic <sic> relevant to the book; about 225 pages of notes on Kotarbinski and ‘practical’ actions in sociological inquiry; and about Garfinkel’s dedication is found in the first note: 400 pages of transcribed seminar discussions and Readers who are acquainted with the magnificent notes on ethnomehodology and ethnoscience, the writings of the late Alfred Schutz will recognize the last materials having been gathered for the most size of the debt that the paper owes to him. The pa- part during the past year at Harvard. per is respectfully dedicated to him as an esteemed During 1958 a collaboration was attempted with Dr. teacher and sociologist. Aaron V. Cicourel of Northwestern University. Dr. Cicourel offered to contribute to the book studies Comparing the original Stresa Paper and the abridged in which the book’s arguments would be applied publication (Garfinkel 1961), it becomes all the more to current and generally unsatisfactory applica- obvious that some crucial aspects of Garfinkel’s argu- tions of mathematics and conventional statisti- ment that are pertinent both to Garfinkel’s concept of cal method in sociological inquiries to handle the ethnomethodology and to his discussion of Schütz, problem of rigorous and literal descriptions of so- are missing in the abridged publication. The present ciological events. We terminated the collaboration when we could no longer agree on the book’s con- edition of Harold Garfinkel’s manuscript “Common tents. (Manuscript in the Garfinkel Archive, New- Sense Knowledge of Social Structures” is thus both bury Port) an original publication and the re-edition of a pre- publication distributed amongst participants at the This proposal gives further indication that the Stresa Fourth World Congress of Sociology in Stresa, Italy, Paper was actually written for the Fourth World Con- in 1959. The editing has been carefully arranged and gress of Sociology, and in 1959/1960 was to form the monitored by Christian Erbacher (Siegen), repro- nucleus of a book which never materialized. Aaron ducing Garfinkel’s original typescript as faithfully Cicourel’s planned and then abandoned contribu- as possible (and even line by line) with the help of tion to the joint book was to form the nucleus of his Anne dos Santos Reis and Julia Jung (to whom we first book publication (Cicourel 1964), which is well- owe a big Thank You). Obvious orthographic mis- known in the sociological literature and the social sci- takes have been corrected; the original page num- ences.
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