Studies in ETHNOMETHOOOLOGY HAROLD GARFINKEL University of California, Los Angeles PRENTICE-HALL, INC., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey © 1967 by PRENTICE-HALL, INc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey TO ABRAHAM GARFINKEL All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 67-22565 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Current printing (last digit) : 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 PRENTICE-HALL INTERNATIONAL, INc., London PRENTICE-HALL OF AusTRALIA, PTY. LTD., Sydney PRENTICE-HALL OF CANADA, LTD., Toronto PRENTICE-HALL OF INDIA PRIVATE LTD., New Delhi PRENTICE-HALL OF JAPAN, INc., Tokyo preface In doing sociology, lay and professional, every reference to the "real world," even where the reference is to physical or biological events, is a reference to the organized activities of everyday life. Thereby, in contrast to certain versions of Durkheim that teach that the objective reality of social facts is sociology's fundamental prin­ ciple, the lesson is taken instead, and used as a study policy, that the objective reality of social facts as an ongoing accomplishment of the concerted activities of daily life, with the ordinary, artful ways of that accomplishment being by members known, used, and taken for granted, is, for members doing sociology, a fundamental phenomenon. Because, and in the ways it is practical sociology's fundamental phenomenon, it is the prevailing topic for ethno­ methodological study. Ethnomethodological studies analyze every­ day activities as members' methods for making those· same activities visibly-rational-and-reportable-for-all-practical-purposes, i.e., "ac­ countable," as organizations of commonplace everyday activities. The reflexivity of that phenomenon is a singular feature of practical actions, of practical circumstances, of common sense knowledge of social structures, and of practical sociological reasoning. By permit­ ting us to. locate and examine their occurrence the reflexivity of that phenomenon establishes their study. Their study is directed to the tasks of learning how members' vii viii STUDIES IN ETHNOMETHODOLOGY ix actual, ordinary activities consist of methods to make practical ac­ A la~er, .very ~ar~e set of materials is currently circulating prior to tions, practical circumstances, common sense knowledge of social publication. Fmdmgs and methods are becoming available at an in­ structures, and practical sociological reasoning analyzeable; and of creasing rate, and it is pointless any longer to doubt that an im­ discovering the formal properties of commonplace, practical com­ mense, hitherto unknown domain of social phenomena has been mon sense actions, "from within" actual settings, as ongoing accom­ uncovered. plishments of those settings. The formal properties obtain their guar­ The studies in this volume were written over the last twelve antees from no other source, and in no other way. Because this is years. ~ regret a certain unity in the collection that was obtained by so, our study tasks cannot be accomplished by free invention, con­ pondenng and rearranging texts. I am saddened by that practice structive analytic theorizing, mock-ups, or book reviews, and so no for i~' ~he ~ay it ~ssures to the collected articles an overall "good special interest is paid to them aside from an interest in their varie­ sense 1t wlll certamly have sacrificed news. The articles originated ties as organizationally situated methods of practical reasoning. Simi­ from my studies of the writings of Talcott Parsons Alfred Schutz larly, there can be nothing to quarrel with or to correct about prac­ ~on Gurwitsch, and Edmund Husser!. For twenty ~ears their writ~ tical sociological reasoning, and so, because professional sociological mgs have provided me with inexhaustible directives into the world inquiries are practical through and through, except that quarrels of everyday activities. Parsons' work, particularly, remains awesome between those doing professional inquiries and ethnomethodology for. the ~enetratin~ depth and unfailing precision of its practical may be of interest as phenomena for ethnomethodological studies, socwlog1cal reasonmg on the constituent tasks of the problem of these quarrels need not be taken seriously. social order and its solutions. Ethnomethodological studies are not directed to formulating or The completion of these studies was made materially possible arguing correctives. They are useless when they are done as ironies. by the following grants and fellowships. Studies reported in the Although they are directed to the preparation of manuals on socio­ papers on routine grounds, the documentary method, and passing logical methods, these are in no way supplements to "standard" were supported by a Senior Research Fellowship, SF-81, from the procedure, but are distinct from them. They do not formulate a U.S. Public Health Service. Investigations of common understand­ remedy for practical actions, as if it was being found about practical ings and coding practices were supported by Senior Research Fel­ actions that they were better or worse than they are usually cracked lowship SF-81 from the U.S. Public Health Service, Grant Q-2 from up to be. Nor are they in search of humanistic arguments, nor do the Research Section of the California State Department of Mental they engage in or encourage permissive discussions of theory. Hygiene, and Project Af-AFOSR-757-65 of the Behavioral Sciences l Over the past ten years a group of increasing size has been doing Division of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. ethnomethodological studies as day to day concerns: Egon Bittner, The work upon which the paper on the rationalities is based was Aaron V. Cicoure~ Lindsey Churchil~ Craig MacAndrew, Michael initiated while the author was a member of the Organizational Be­ Moerman, Edward Rose, Harvey Sacks, Emmanuel Schegloff, David havior Project, Princeton University, and was completed under a Sudnow, D. Lawrence Wieder, and Don Zimmerman. Harvey Sacks Senior Research Fellowship, SF-81, from the U.S. Public Health must be mentioned particularly because his extraordinary writings Service. The author is indebted to the Interdisciplinary Program in and lectures have served as critical resources. the Behavioral Sciences at the University of New Mexico, Summer, Through their studies methods have been made available whose 1958, under project AF 49(638)-33 of the Behavioral Sciences Divi­ use has established a domain of sociological phenomena: the formal sion, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, ARDC, and the Society properties of common sense activities as a practical organizational for the Investigation of Human Ecology. accomplishment. An early body of work of considerable size is now I was privileged to spend the academic year 1963-1964 as a Fel­ either in print or in press. This volume is a part of that early corpus. low in the Center for the Scientific Study of Suicide of the Los X STUDIES IN ETHNOMETHODOLOGY xi Angeles Suicide Prevention Center. I am indebted to Drs. Edwin S. his permission the method is reported in Appendix I. Only I am re­ Shneidman, Norman L. Farberow, and Robert E. Litman for their sponsible for the paper's shortcomings. hospitality. I am grateful to my students Michael R. Mend and Patricia Allen The investigations of the work of the Psychiatric Outpatient for their assistance with the clinic and reliability studies. Peter Clinic of the U.C.L.A. Neuropsychiatric Institute were supported McHugh, when he was a graduate student at U~C.L.A., assisted me by Grants A-7 and Q-2 from the Research Section of the California with the "counseling" experiment. David Sudnow worked to the State Department of Mental Hygiene, and Senior Research Fellow­ limits of his patience to improve the writing. Robert J. Stoller, Egon ship SF-81 from the U.S. Public Health Service. Bittner, and Saul Mendlovitz collaborated in the studies that cite The investigation of staff uses of clinic folders was supported by them as co-authors. The study of jurors is based on interviews with Grant Q-2 from the Research Section of the California State Depart­ jurors done by Mendlovitz and me when we were affiliated with the ment of Mental Hygiene, the senior author's Senior Research Fellow­ Jury Project of the Law School of the University of Chicago. ship SF-81 from the U.S. Public Health Service, and the Confer­ Debts are owed to very particular persons: to James H. Clark, ences on Ethnomethodology under Grant AF-AFOSR-278-62 of the friend and editor; and to old friends: William C. Beckwith, Joseph Behavioral Sciences Division of the Air Force Office of Scientific Bensman, Heinz and Ruth Ellersieck, Erving Coffman, Evelyn Research. Harry R. Brickman, M.D., and Eugene Pumpian-Mindlin, Hooker, Duncan MacRae, Jr., Saul Mendlovitz, Elliot G. Mishler, M.D., former Directors of the Psychiatric Outpatient Clinic of the Henry W. Riecken, Jr., WilliamS. Robinson, Edward Rose, Edwin Neuropsychiatric Institute at the University of California, Los S. Shneidman, Melvin Seeman, and Eleanor B. Sheldon. Angeles, greatly facilitated the inquiries. Drs. Leon Epstein and My lovely wife knows this book with me. Robert Ross, encouraged the clinic studies and administered Grants A-7 and Q-2 from the California Department of Mental Hygiene HAROLD GARFINKEL when they directed its Research Section. Particular gratitude is extended to Dr. Charles E. Hutchinson, Chief of the Behavioral Sciences Division, Air Force Office of Sci­ entific Research, whose Division supported the Conferences on Ethnomethodology with Grant AF-AFOSR-278-62 to Edward Rose and me, and Studies of Decision Making in Common Sense Situa­ tions of Choice with Grants AF-AFOSR-757-65, and AF-AFOSR- 757-66 to Harvey Sacks, Lindsey Churchill and me. The study of methodological adequacy benefited in many im­ portant ways from the criticisms of Drs. Richard J. Hill, Elliot G. Mishler, Eleanor B.