Rev Notes: Ethnomethodology

Sociology has not been attentive / respectful of peoples' everyday world and this everyday life should be the ultimate source of sociological knowledge

Sociology, thus, focuses on a constructed world that conceals everyday practices

Sociological concepts distort the social world

What are some concepts that Ethnomethodologists might say distort the world?

Sociological concepts destroy the ability for social scientists to examine the ebb & flow of everyday life

Sociologists have not shared the same social reality as those they study

In attempting to do science, sociology has become alienated from the social world

Sociologists offer abstractions of the everyday world that are removed from the reality of everyday life

The everyday world is a resource for favorite topics, but it is not seen as a topic in its own right

Values, norms, etc. are studied but speech & communication, which are the conduit of these bedrock sociological concepts, are ignored, so Ethnomethodologists ask "Why not look just at speech?"

In mainstream sociology, socialization is a series of abstract stages rather than the acquisition of interactional competencies

Mainstream sociology is normative, which means that it describes how it is, as opposed to prescriptive which implies how the world should be

The idea of mainstream sociology, that socialization is a series of stages in which complete adults teach incomplete children, is normative & flawed

Ethnomethodology does not want to return to the activism of the Chicago School, of Marxism & Conflict Theory, nor to the conservatism of Parsonian Structural-Functionalism

Ethnomethodology is interpretive in that it tries to display a phenomenon completely & allow the viewer to interpret it

Mainstream sociology ignores reflexivity in that all interactions are seen as two sided, but not reflexive w/ the Self

An example of the lack of reflexivity is mainstream sociology is that socialization btwn adults & children often ignores that fact that both actors are thinking & responding in real time, and thus socialization is not the pouring of norms into empty vessels

An example of the lack of reflexivity is mainstream sociology is that in the study of bureaucracy: rules, norms, values of org, etc. see the org as an actor, and try to make lower level actors appear as passive vessels, but the actors often try to make it appear as if they directed their action, and were not passive

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Outline on an Intro to Ethnomethodology

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- Project: Assessing Ethnomethodology

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- Project: Breaching Experiment

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- Project: Your Ethnomethodological Research

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- Project: Mediation

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ETHNOMETHODOLOGY IS AN OFF-SHOOT OF DRAMATURGY, PHENOMENOLOGY, & SIMILAR FIELDS

Harold Garfinkel, a student of Alfred Schutz & Parsons, is the founder & major contributor to ethnomethodology

Ethnomethodology is a subfield of sociology which studies the way people make sense of their everyday lives

Ethnomethodology was founded by Garfinkel in late 1940s

The first systematized publication of Studies in Ethnomethodology occurred in 1967

Garfinkel coined the term ethnomethodology in the 1960s to signify the methods members of the society use to make & maintain sense of the social world around them

Ethnomethodology was the first distinctive, significant theory of the American West Coast

Ethnomethodology is now considered mainstream sociology in that ethnomethodologists regularly publish in the American Sociological Review, the American Journal of Sociology, & so on

However, the criticisms of ethnomethodology are stinging

ETHNOMETHODOLOGY EXAMINES PEOPLES' EVERYDAY KNOWLEDGE & HOW THEY USE IT TO LIVE IN & CONSTRUCT THEIR DAILY WORLD; IT IS 'THE STUDY OF THE PEOPLES' METHODS'

Ethnomethodology is the study of the "body of common-sense knowledge & the range of procedures & considerations [the methods] by means of which the ordinary members of society make sense of, find their way about in, & act on the circumstances in which they find themselves

Ethnomethodology examines the methods people use daily to accomplish their everyday lives

Ethnomethodology is the body of common-sense knowledge & range of procedures & considerations by means of which ordinary members of society make sense of, find their way about in, & act on the circumstances in which they find themselves

Theorists in ethnomethodology are interested in the study of everyday life

While phenomenological sociologists tend to focus on what people think, ethnomethodologists are concerned w/ what people actually do

Ethnomethodologists study conversations & eschew the study of bureaucracy, capitalism, the division of labor, & social systems

Ethnomethodologists are interested in how the social forms of bureaucracy, capitalism, the division of labor, social systems, etc. are created in everyday life

Ethnomethodology is empirical & does little theorizing

Accounts are the process by which people offer accounts of the world; that is, make sense of the world

People are reflexively accountable: we make sense of our internal world & the external world simultaneously via description, criticism, idealization, etc., & as we do so, we alter both worlds

The concept of the double hermeneutic, made popular by Schutz & advanced by Giddens, holds that others can never know our world or the world we see because they are both hermeneutically sealed

An examination of accounting practices, which detail how members make sense of the world & create micro & macro structures, is the project of ethnomethodology

STRAINS W/IN ETHNOMETHODOLOGY / CRITIQUE / WEAKNESSES: ETHNOMETHODOLOGY FOCUSES ON THE MARGINS OF SOCIETY, WHICH SOME CONSIDER TO BE TRIVIAL

Ethnomethodology focuses on trivial matters such as game rules, deviant sexuality, conversation, laughter, applause, booing

Sociology should not lose track of it's consideration of "serious social problems" such as poverty, alienation, etc.

In it's pursuit of the trivialities of everyday life, Ethnomethodology lost sight of its phenomenological roots & the concern for conscious, cognitive processes

While the micro macro link has been central to the theory of Ethnomethodology, a valid examination of the micro macro link has not materialized

Ethnomethodology lost sight of its original radical reflexivity where social activity is always bi directional & is "accomplished" i.e. modified in process to accompanied actors & audience

Ethnomethodology & conversation analysis have split into two factions

Lewis Coser, the President of the ASA in 1975, said ethnomethodology is trivial, a massive cop out, an orgy of subjectivism, & a self indulgent enterprise

Coser says ethnomethodology fails to generate any insights at all: 'it elaborates points which are so commonplace that they are banal'

ETHNOMETHODOLOGY EXAMINES PEOPLES' ACCTS: HOW THEY MAKE SENSE, CONSTRUCT UNDERSTANDING, DISPLAY MEANING, USE UNDERSTANDING, ETC.

Ethnomethodology means, literally, 'the study of people's methods'

Ethnomethodology focuses on the way people:
- make sense of the world, the way they
- construct their understanding of the world, the way they
- display their understandings, & the way they
- use their understanding

Our understanding of the world is not simply an individualistic, unorganized random body of knowledge, rather it is shaped by many forces, physical, natural, social, etc. & it is sociology's job to uncover & understand these forces

The term accounts is used to describe a person's, or several person's understandings of a situation

Accounts make one's actions & interpretations mutually intelligible meaning that they are commonsensical & intuitive to others

Accounts are more or less reflexive in that at times they are flexible & adapting to changing understandings & situations, which at other times they may be solid, maintained by existing culture & social structure

Ethnomethodology focuses on how accounts, our systematized understandings, are organized in the ongoing moment to moment maintenance of social order

The social sciences seeks to provide accounts of society which compete with those offered by other members; all accounts compete w/ other accounts

The documentarian method is used to read every day events as opportunities by which members of the community use their cultural competence & indexical (contextual) knowledge to make sense of the world

To say that words, behavior, understanding are indexical means that they are reliant for their meaning on the context in which they are used

Ethnomethodology provides insights into the objectivity of social science & the difficulty in establishing a description of human behavior which has an objective status outside the context of its creation

Ethnomethodology has had an impact on linguistics & particularly on pragmatics, spawning a whole new discipline of conversation analysis

Ethnomethodological studies of work have played a significant role in the field of human computer interaction, improving design by providing engineers w/ descriptions of the practices of users

ETHNOMETHODOLOGICAL INDIFFERENCE IS THE RELUCTANCE TO EMBRACE THEORY FROM OTHER SCHOOLS, OR EVEN FROM THEIR OWN SCHOOL

Ethnomethodological indifference is a policy of deliberate agnosticism towards social theory

It is a specialized application of the phenomenological technique of bracketing

By deliberately suspending our preconceived notions of how the social order is maintained, we are able to more clearly see the social order in its actual, real time, moment to moment production

DURKHEIM WOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AN ETHNOMETHODOLOGIST, BUT HE DID ADVOCATE 'TREATING SOCIAL FACTS AS THINGS'

Durkheim famously recommended that we 'treat social facts as things'

Treating social facts as things is usually taken to mean that we should assume the objectivity of social facts as a principal of study

For Durkheim & many others the establishment of social facts provided the basis of founding sociology as a science

Garfinkel's alternative reading of Durkheim is that we should treat the objectivity of social facts as an achievement of society' members, thus making this achievement of objectivity the focus of study

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Outline on an Intro to Harold Garfinkel

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- Biography & Major Works

GARFINKEL'S ETHNOMETHODOLOGY HOLDS THAT BEHAVIOR JUSTIFIES ITSELF THROUGH THE PROCESSES OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF EVERYDAY LIFE

Harold Garfinkel, a student of Alfred Schutz & Parsons, is the founder & major contributor to ethnomethodology

Garfinkel rejected Parsons' structural functional perspective & rediscovered the classical sociological ideas of Durkheim & Weber

Ethnomethodology and Garfinkel rejected Parsons' notion that the normative order is separate from the behavioral order & yet still controls the behavioral order

Behavior creates its own norms/justification; i.e., the social world was not reified (i.e., an independent thing) but linked to everyday life activity

Garfinkel focused mostly on trivial or deviant behavior and thus earned the disdain of many mainstream sociologists

Garfinkel worked on the Parsonian issue of order not from the theoretical direction but rather from the direction of the details of their workings, in their achievement

THE SOCIAL WORLD IS NOT REIFIED NOR OBJECTIFIED; RATHER ALL SOC SYSTEMS INCLUDING CULTURE, ORGS, & STRUCTURES CAN BE UNDERSTOOD THROUGH THE PROCESSES OF EVERYDAY LIFE

Garfinkel found that the social world was not reified, in contrast to Parsons' tendency to reify cultural & social systems

Garfinkel's refusal to reify was similar to that of Weber and Durkheim

Durkheim's orientation was to study, not reify, external and coercive social facts

Garfinkel, like Durkheim, holds that social facts are fundamental in sociology

Durkheim's social facts were external to & coercive of individuals

For Durkheim, actors are constrained/determined by social structures & institutions

For Garfinkel, social facts are the accomplishments of members as a product of member's methodological activities which Garfinkel believes are reasoned & patterned

PEOPLE ARE REFLEXIVE, NOT MERE PAWNS OF SOC FORCES

For Garfinkel, Durkheim treats people as "judgmental dopes" because Durkheim does not treat them as active actors

The production of objective reality, of social facts, is society's fundamental phenomenon & it is the fundamental project of sociology to examine it

Classic studies of social order & ethnomethodological studies agree that the social relationship they are researching is the production & accountability of the phenomena of order, reason, logic, etc., which is the same early question that social scientists such as Hobbes & Durkheim explored

For Garfinkel, social life is the the great recurrences of immortal ordinary society, really, actually, evidently, distinctively, and in detail

Some ethnomethodological studies offer evidence for locally produced, naturally accountable phenomena of order, logic, reason, meaning, method, objective knowledge, evidence, detail, structure, etc.

Everyday life exhibits unavoidable & irremediable individuality / singleness of immortal ordinary life

The point of view of ethnomethodology that the creation of everyday life is continuous, fragile & on going is contrary to the classic policies, methods, claims, & findings of professional sociology & the world wide social science movement

THE SOCIAL SCIENCES SHOULD FOCUS ON RADICAL BEHAVIOR, SUSPEND ALL JUDGEMENT, USE BRACKETING, & STUDY THE PRACTICE OF LANGUAGE

In contrast to the social constructionist version of phenomenological sociology, Garfinkel emphasizes a focus on radical phenomena, rather than on the various ways they are interpreted

Garfinklel's recommendation that sociologists suspend their assumption of social order is often wrongly taken to mean that he believes social life to be chaotic, or that members of society are free agents

The suspension (bracketing in the phenomenological jargon) is merely an analytic move designed to bring the existing social order more clearly into focus

Garfinkel emphasizes the indexicality of language & the difficulties this creates for the production of objective accounts of social phenomena

Objective accounts of reality are reflexive to the settings in which they are produced in that they depend upon that setting for their meaning

Ethnomethodological studies come in a wide variety of forms, including:
- the sequential analysis of conversation
- the study of social categorization practices, through membership category analysis
- studies of workplace settings & activities
- studies of deviant human behavior such as drug use, prostitution, crime, sexuality, etc.

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Harold Garfinkel 1917 -

Harold Garfinkel is Professor Emeritus in sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Garfinkel is one of the key developers of the phenomenological tradition in American sociology

PROFESSOR EMERITUS
Ph. D., Harvard University
Phone: 310-825-3328
E-mail: GARFINKEL@SOC.UCLA.EDU
Office: 264 HAINES
Mailing Address:
UCLA Department of Sociology
264 Haines Hall - Box 951551
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1551
Fax: 310-206-9838

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Major Works of Garfinkel

1946 "Color trouble." in Primer for white folks. Edited by B. Moon, 269-286. Garden City, NY: Doubleday Doran
1956 "Conditions of successful degradation ceremonies." American Journal of Sociology 61: 420-424.
1956 "Some sociological concepts and methods for psychiatrists." Psychiatric Research Reports 6: 181-198.
1963 "A conception of, and experiments with, 'trust' as a condition of stable concerted actions." in Motivation and social interaction. Edited by O.J. Harvey, 187-238. New York: The Ronald Press
1967 Studies in ethnomethodology . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall
1967 "Practical sociological reasoning: Some features in the work of the Los Angeles suicide prevention center." in Essays in self destruction. Ed by E. Shneidman, 171-186. NY: Science House
1968 "Discussion: The origin of the term 'ethnomethodology'." in Proceedings of the Purdue Symposium on Ethnomethodology. Ed. by R. Hill and K. Grittenden, 15-18. Institute Monograph Series #1
1970 (with Harvey Sacks) "On formal structures of practical actions." in Theoretical sociology: Perspectives & developments. Edited by J. McKinney and E. Tiryakian, 337-366. New York: Meredith
1972 "A Comparison of Decisions Made on Four 'Pre Theoretical' Problems by Talcott Parsons and Alfred Schultz" in . Edited by, . ms.. [first published in 1960]
1972 "Studies in the routine grounds of everyday activities." in Studies in social interaction. Edited by D. Sudnow, 1-30. New York: The Free Press. [first published in 1964]
1972 "Conditions of Successful Degradation Ceremonies." in Symbolic Interactionism. Edited by J. Manis and B. Meltzer, 201-208. New York: Allyn and Bacon
1976 "An introduction, for novices, to the work of studying naturally organized ordinary activities." in . Edited by, . ms.
1981 "The Work of a Discovering Science Construed with Materials from the Optically Discovered Pulsar." Philosophy of the Social Sciences 11: 131-158.
2002 Ethnomethodology's program: Working out Durkheim's aphorism . Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield,

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Outline on the Ethnomethodological Research

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- Project: Breaching Experiment

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- Project: Your Ethnomethodological Research

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There is a high level of diversity in Ethnomethodology; i.e. many different topics are considered

Ethnomethodology, & especially Garfinkel, are most well know for their studies of non institutional settings

Ethnomethodology's methodology is also diverse & complex

Ethnomethodology is generally considered to be research oriented, as opposed to the theoretical orientation of many social theorists from Marx to Parsons

Ethnomethodology is empirical, in that it bases it's findings on observable behavior, but it also uses many qualitative methodologies, and therefore frequently presents subjective or interpretive findings

CONVERSATION ANALYSIS

Conversational analysis has become so important in Ethnomethodology that many theorists now consider it an independent field

Conversation analysis has a focus on the structures of conversation, ignoring most content & the social problems that content might represent

Zimmerman holds that conversation is an interactional activity exhibiting stable, orderly properties that are the analyzable achievements of conversants

In conversation analysis, the focus is on internal, & not external, constraints

Zimmerman developed the working principles of conversation analysis:

a. Establish a highly detailed record of conversations (including pauses, uhh’s, etc.)

b. The finest detail of a conversation is an orderly, i.e. purposeful, accomplishment

c. Conversation is an autonomous, separable form the the cognitive processes of actors & the larger context

d. Conversation has sequential organization

e. Conversation is managed on a turn by turn basis, a local basis

Thus conversations are context shaped in that what is said is shaped by what has been said

Conversations are context shaping in that conversations shape future turns in the conversation

Conversations are the bedrock of other forms of interpersonal relations

BREACHING EXPERIMENTS

Ethnomethodologists have used research methods in the past that 'breach' or 'break' the everyday routine of interaction in order to reveal the work that goes into maintaining the normal flow of life

The breaching experiment approach was developed by Garfinkel, based on Alfred Schütz's phenomenological reconstruction of Max Weber's verstehen sociology

Breaching experiments are not really experiments, but rather an 'aid to the sluggish imagination' to see the processes of social construction & maintenance

Breaching experiments are another way of making clear the work that is done by members to maintain the social order

In a breaching experiment, social reality is violated in order to shed light on the methods by which people construct social reality

Ethnomethodologists assume that people are unaware that we are engaged in constantly recreating/maintaining/constructing our social environment

Tic tac toe: O on the line

When Garfinkel has students pretend they were a boarder in their own home, family members were dumbfounded & constructed explanations for this bizarre behavior

Taking everything literally: “make yourself at home:” guest proceeds to take a nap, bath or cook a meal
“Say whatever you want in this class:” Professor is a X!!@#$ or ..

Breaching experiments reveal the resilience of social reality

Even in breached situations, actors always try to find meaning, to understand a social situation

Examples of breaching experiments include:
- : pretending to be a stranger in one's own home
- blatantly cheating at board games
- attempting to bargain for goods on sale in stores. These interventions have .

Breaching experiments demonstrate the creativity ordinary members of society use to interpret & maintain social order

Ethnomethodology also uses the concepts inherent in breaching experiments to explore the breaking of gender norms prevalent in today's society

ACCOMPLISHING SEX (Gender)

While actors don't think of accomplishing the construction of their gender, i.e. our manliness & womanliness, actors do view sexiness this way: "I was acting sexy."

For an actor to say, "I was acting manly." is usually in the context of a joke, which are often snippets of an actor's reflexivity

Studies of transvestites reveal how much we also accomplish our gender; such as, walking like a woman; standing like a man; etc.

TELEPHONE: No face to face contact on the phone means we need cues to recognize each other

INITIATING LAUGHTER

If there are only two parties in a conversation, the speaker laughs first, the sole listener laughs second

If there are more than two parties in a conversation, one of the listeners laughs first

GENERATING APPLAUSE

Atkinson examines how to generate applause

Atkinson discovered that to generate applause, the speaker should emphasize and thus highlight their contents against a background of speech material

Atkinson discovered that to generate applause, the speaker should project a clear completion point for the message in question

Heritage & Greatbatch explored how politicians generate applause

1. Heritage & Greatbatch found that the most effective method for politicians to generate applause was to contrast two policy positions as a negative & positive

2. Politicians can generate applause by making a list, a three part list is best, this emphasizing the completion point

3. Politicians can generate applause by offering a puzzle & a solution with an emphasis on the solution

4. Politicians can generate applause by offering a Headline / punch line that they are proposes to make a statement, and then makes that statement

5. To generate applause, a combination of many methods is effective including the use two or more of the devices of contrasts, the list, the puzzle, the headline, etc.

6. Politicians can generate applause by position taking: first present something non evaluatively, then take it as own

7. Politicians can generate applause by Pursuit: pursue applause by aggressively restating a point

BOOING

Applause & booing are the result of independent individual decision making; & of mutual monitoring of the rest of the audience

Applause generally burst fourth and peak in a second or two

Booing utilizes mutual monitoring

Booing may begin w/ self talk: yikes, or “idiot”

Booing is often preceded by incipient displays of disaffiliation: whispering, talking, shouting, jeering

With booing, the displays of disaffiliation may develop into a murmur, buzz or roar

There may be a significant time lag; building slowly to boos by many

Defenses against booing include:

- offering a counter position

- joking about the booing

- halting the progress of the speech

- talking right through the booing

Thus we see that 'social agreements' tend to be produced promptly in an unqualified manner

Disagreements are delayed, qualified, and accountable

SENTENCES & STORIES

Sentences emerge from conversation: a speaker can reconstruct her meaning as she is speaking in order to maintain appropriateness

Speakers pay acute attention to listeners

Sentences are the products of collaborative processes

The audience is not passive, but should be seen as the co-author

The audience may repair some problems in the story by offering corrections, or filling in gaps

FORMULATIONS

We will reformulate what someone is trying to say to clarify or emphasize it

INTEGRATION OF TALK & NONVOCAL ACTIVITY

The integration of talk & nonvocal activity is accomplished through:
- eye contact
- head movements
- hand movements
- body position

DOING SHYNESS & SELF CONFIDENCE

Shy people talk more about the setting while confident people get to the point

FIRST TIME THROUGH

This is a practice of treating any social activity as if it was happening for the very first time, in an attempt to discover how that particular activity is put together by those who participate in it

SACKS' GLOSS

A question about an aspect of the social order that recommends, as a method of answering it, that the researcher should seek out members of society who, in their daily lives, are responsible for the maintenance of that aspect of the social order

Sacks' original question concerned objects in public places and how it was possible to see that such objects did or did not belong to somebody

Sacks found his answer to how we maintain of social order in everyday life in the activities of police officers who had to decide whether cars were abandoned

Using Sacks' methods, a researcher might study how women maintain the social order of holiday traditions, how men maintain the social order of their hunting trip, how children maintain the social order on the playground, etc.

EPISTEMOLOGY & ETHNOMETHODOLOGY

Ethnomethodology has also influenced the epistemology, i.e. theories of knowledge, by providing a research strategy that precisely describes the methods of its research subjects without the necessity of evaluating their validity

Ethnomethodology demonstrated that it is possible to study the social order , in laboratories, w/o the necessity of proving scientific validity, & gain comprehension of how scientists understood their experiments w/o either endorsing or criticizing their activities

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Outline on Ethnomethodology & Institutions

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- Project: Mediation

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While most ethnomethodologists study individual behavior in non-institutionalized settings, some ethnomethodological research does go on in institutional settings

Studies of institutional settings focus on the performance of official & unofficial tasks as they constitute the institution in which the tasks take place

Ethnomethodologists hold that people are not determined by external forces, but use them to accomplish their tasks & create their institutions

Some of the common institutions examined by ethnomethodologists include schools, sports, prisons, the street, families, etc.

JOB INTERVIEWS

How do you know when it is over?

The interviewer may indicate it is over

The interviewer asking another question, indicates it's not over

The interviewer may assess the answer so that the interviewee has nothing more to say

CALLS TO EMERGENCY CENTERS

Bizarre openings that would normally be ignored are taken seriously

MEDIATION: DISPUTE RESOLUTION

Dispute resolution succeeds by eliminating processes that lead to escalating levels of strife in ordinary conversation

Some methods to enhance dispute resolution are typical mediation tactics which include

1. the stipulation of who is allowed to speak

In dispute resolution, no interruptions are allowed

Each side must respond to the entire statement of the other side, and not just attack points along the way

2. disputants shall address their remarks to the mediator who serves as both a buffer and a controller

3. mediators eliminate cross talk which often embodies much of an argument

Garcia says that mediation reduces conflict because

1. accusations & denials are not adjacent, and thereby reduce escalation

2. denials are not made directly into accusations, rather they are turned into queries by the mediator

3. of a delay btwn accusation and response allowing the bypassing of some accusations in order to focus on the more important issues

4. accusations & denials are mitigated; i.e., are reduced or have a partial solution offered

EXECUTIVE NEGOTIATIONS & MEDIATION

Most negotiations in the top levels of organizations produce the appearance of reasonableness, detachment, and impersonality

In executive negotiations, animosities, disagreements and disputes are contained

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Outline on Ethnomethodology on Micro / Macro Integration

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ETHNOMETHODOLOGY MAINTAINS THAT MICRO RELATIONSHIPS ARE DETERMINATIVE, & SO ACKNOWLEDGE MACRO STRUCTURES, WHILE MAINTAINING THAT THEY ARE DIFFERENT THAN MICRO RELATIONSHIPS

Ethnomethodology acknowledges the existence of a tension btwn micro & macro structures

Ethnomethodologists accuse other social scientists as viewing people as judgmental dopes instead of free agents

Ethnomethodologists do not treat people as judgmental dopes, but people are viewed as exhibiting strong routines & as being relatively unreflective

For ethnomethodologists, traditional social science views people, not as individuals, but rather strictly & solely in terms of their membership activities; i.e., the activities that they engage in as part of a group, or institution

Ethnomethodology is seen as connecting micro & macro structures in it's examination of the practices whereby people produce, for themselves & others, large scale orgs, structure, & small scale interactional or personal structure

For ethnomethodologists, everyday activity produces both micro & macro structures

Ethnomethodology remains micro extremist, but still reaches for macro integration by addressing how people act in institutions

Conversational analysis & symbolic interactionism both examine thought via talk in interaction

Ethnomethodology transcends the micro macro relationship because it is concerned w/ social practices which produce micro & macro structures

The structures which make-up conversation & the symbolic interactionism of everyday life & the structural phenomena that members orient to & take for granted are the same phenomena

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Outline on the Social Analysis of Everyday Life

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INTRO: SOC ANALYSIS EXAMINES ALL MICRO OR PERSONAL LEVEL TYPES OF RELATIONSHIPS & THE FACTORS AFFECTING THEM

The analysis of the practices of the social analysis of everyday life, the reciprocities & cultural arrangements of everyday life, is part of micro sociology

The social analysis of everyday life provides a critique of the anonymity, alienation & remoteness of macro institutions such as the economy & the state

There are various traditions in sociology of the study of the everyday world

The study of everyday life has been fundamental to the development of German social theory

Much of our everyday life consists of negotiations of identities

As we make sense of our environment, the space & order around us, & when we meet others & establish relationships, we develop our identity

Our ethnicity is one example of part of our identity that we construct it & it is constructed for us

For many of us, our ethnic identity is a salient part of our daily lives

While we may not feel ethnically identified, we do have an ethnic role that is played out in a less than conscious manner

The purpose of the social analysis of everyday life is the application of social sciences to everyday interactions in order to reveal the underlying patterns & order of everyday life

Analysts may thus gain fresh insights into events & situations that might otherwise be taken for granted

While the focus of social analysis of everyday life is primarily on processes of interaction, it also examines the nature of connections btwn social structures & everyday face to face encounters

Everyday life analysis provides an engaging treatment of issues that resonant w/ peoples' daily experiences

Common topics today in everyday life analysis include cultural differences in nonverbal gestures to the debate over the boundaries of gender & sex, from the proliferation of online dating to the implications of the contemporary self help movement

The social analysis of everyday life often investigates micro level processes, using observational field work