The theme of this book is how ethnomethodology provides for an 'alternate' sociology by respecifying sociological phenomena as locally accomplished members' activities. This theme is explained in the first two chapters, which comprise an introduction by the editors and a seminal statement of ethnomethodology's analytic stance by its founder, Harold Garfinkel. In his chapter, Garfinkel sets out his conception of the 'corpus status' of ethnomethodological studies as an alternative mode of inquiry into the organization of social life. The remainder of the book comprises original research studies by leading scholars in the field. These chapters are organized into two parts. In the first, the focus is on studies of practical action and organisation. In the second, the emphasis is on studies of practical reasoning and situated logic in various settings. By organizing the book in this way, the collection demonstrates the relevance of ethnomethodological investigations to established topics and issues and indicates the contribution that ethnomethodology can make to the understanding of human action in any and all social contexts. Both individually and collectively, these contributions illustrate how taking an ethnomethodological approach opens up for investigation phenomena that are taken for granted in conventional sociological theorizing.
Author(s): Stephen Hester (Ed.), David Francis (Ed.)
Series: Directions in Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis
Edition: 1st
Publisher: Ashgate
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 244
City: Aldershot
Contents......Page 6
List of Figures and Tables......Page 8
List of Contributors......Page 10
Preface......Page 12
PART ONE: ETHNOMETHODOLOGY AND ORDINARY ACTION......Page 14
1 Analysing Orders of Ordinary Action......Page 16
2 Four Relations between Literatures of the Social Scientific Movement and their Specific Ethnomethodological Alternates......Page 26
PART TWO: STUDIES OF PRACTICAL ACTION IN ORGANIZATIONAL SETTINGS......Page 44
3 The Technical Operations of the Levers of Power......Page 46
4 Operating Together through Videoconference: Members’ Procedures for Accomplishing a Common Space of Action......Page 64
5 Doctors’ Practical Management of Knowledge in the Daily Case Conference......Page 82
6 Auspices of Corpus Status: Bibliography* as a Phenomenon of Respecification......Page 104
PART THREE: STUDIES OF SITUATED REASONING......Page 118
7 Law Courts as Perspicuous Sites for Ethnomethodological Investigations......Page 120
8 Circumstances of Reasoning in the Natural Sciences......Page 134
9 Expert System Technology in Work Practice: A Report on Service Technicians and Machine Diagnosis......Page 148
10 Thinking as a Public Activity: The Local Order of a Tibetan Philosophical Debate......Page 172
11 Cultures of Reading: On Professional Vision and the Lived Work of Mammography......Page 188
12 The ‘Problem of Dust’: Forensic Investigation as Practical Action......Page 208
Bibliography......Page 224
C......Page 238
F......Page 239
J......Page 240
M......Page 241
R......Page 242
U......Page 243
Z......Page 244
