| Kelly,_Russell Work in progress, papers, definition and CV. |
| Labeling_Theory_and_Ethnomethodology Robert Keel compares Symbolic Interactionism and Ethnomethodological account to Deviance and Social Control. |
| Language_and_social_action The collaborative research project compares affiliative and disaffiliative activities across cultures, languages and institutional settings. Overview, calendar and references. |
| Laurier,_Eric Focus on driving, mobile uses, city culture, medicine and health. |
| Mambila_Divination Article by David Zeitlyn in Man Revue. |
| Microanalysis_Of_Verbal_and_Visual_INteraction_(MOVIN) Danish network focusing on Spoken Language and Conversation Analysis; it proposes publications, an events calendar and a mailing list and a project of Spoken-Language Database, whose one of the transc |
| Mind_Organizer_Project Non hierarchcal organization of documents. Issues on ethnomethodology and on anthropology. |
| Mixed_Reality_Laboratory Studies in the field of computer uses, from work to leisure(University of Nottingham). |
| Navigation_for_Ethnomethodology_and_Conversation_Analysis Links and bibliography. |
| Schegloff,_Emanuel Sound-assisted practical guide to transcription for conversation analysis by one of his founder. |
| Slembrouck Statement on disourse analysis and sociology of order in an interaction. |
| Sociology_in_University_of_California_at_Los_Ansgeles_(UCLA) Department of Harold Garfinkel, John Heritage, Emanuel Schegloff and Melvin Pollner. |
| Text_and_Talk_at_Work International Conference on Discourse Practices in, around and about the Workplace, featuring Jean Widmer, Aaron Cicourel and Diana Slade. Abstracts in Conversation Analysis. |
| A_Textual_Analysis_of_Harold_Garfinkel\'s_Story_of_Agnes Article by Leia Kaitlyn Armitage. |
| Varenne,_Hervé Presents his teaching and research work in anthropology with a special focus on culture theory, school, family in an ethnomethodological fashion. |
| Watson,_Rod Researchs, projects, publications and contacts. |
| Work_Practice_&_Technology_-_The_next_20_years_of_research_(WPT_Fest) Program of the symposium, photos and discussion by Lucy Suchman. |
| Algebraic_and_Geometric_Topology Fully refereed electronic journal. Free. Papers also deposited in the ArXiv. |
| Cahiers_de_Topologie_et_Geometrie_Differentielle_Categoriques Table of contents from vol.38 (1997). |
| Geometry_and_Topology A fully refereed international journal dealing with all aspects of geometry and topology and their applications. Full text free. Articles are deposited in the arXiv. |
| Homology,_Homotopy_and_Applications Full text, free. |
| Journal_of_Knot_Theory_and_Its_Ramifications World Scientific. Connections between knot theory and other aspects of mathematics and natural science. Contents, abstracts from vol.9 (2000). Full text to institutional subscribers. |
| K-theory (Kluwer) Tables of contents from vol.11 (1997). |
| Topology_and_its_Applications (Elsevier) Contents, index, full text to subscribers. |
| AIP_Physics_Today A magazine for physicists with feature articles, news stories, and analyses, and a forum for the exchange of ideas. |
| American_Institute_of_Physics_(AIP)_Journals It is the mission of the Institute to serve physics, astronomy, and related fields of science and technology by serving its Member Societies, individual scientists, educators, students, R&D leader |
| American_Journal_of_Physics Is devoted to the instructional and cultural aspects of physical science. The contents are available online. Browsing and searching abstracts and tables of contents is unrestricted; full text is avail |
| Annalen_der_Physik One of the oldest of its kind worldwide. Includes information on editorial policy, tables of contents and abstracts of articles, as well as full texts of certain historical articles. |
| Bulgarian_Journal_of_Physics Established in 1956 (published in English since 1974), the Bulgarian Journal of Physics accepts articles and reviews in the several fields. |
| Bulgarian_Journal_of_Physics The Journal emphasised, both theoretical and experimental, original information in the major fields of Physics. Recognized by the European Physical Society. |
| Bulletin_of_the_Atomic_Scientists Search issues of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists from 1991 to 1999 with a keyword query. |
| The_Canadian_Undergraduate_Physics_Journal A resource for cutting-edge issues in the undergraduate physics community, and to acknowledge and recognise the contributions made to physics research by undergraduate students. |
| Celerity Latest articles from all publishers of physics journals. Abstracts and preprints are free, full text articles require registration. |
| Chemical_Physics_Letters online full-text service for CPL |
| Computers_in_Physics An archive of CIP (Computing in Science and Engineering) materials. They include an index to all 12 volumes, source-code listings, historical information on the CIP annual educational software contest |
| eFieldTheory A theoretical physics electronic journal with PDF formatted articles in advanced fields of research such as quantum field theory, string theory, statistical physics, and nuclear physics. |
| Egyptian_Journal_of_Solids The Egyptian Journal of Solids is the official publication of the Egyptian Society of Solid State Science and Applications. |
| Entropy_Online_Journal Web-based journal intended for collegiate audiences. Provides links to web-based articles as well as some "basic" lessons on entropy. |
| Fortschritte_der_Physik_-_Progress_of_Physics Progress of Physics is devoted to the theoretical and experimental study of the fundamental constituents of matter and their interactions. |
| The_Industrial_Physicist Bimonthly magazine published by The American Institute of Physics to promote the development, advancement, and recognition of industrial physicists and the applications of physics in industry. |
Ethnomethodology
– An Introduction
Simon Poore
Ethnomethodology is a
fairly recent sociological perspective, founded by the American sociologist Harold
Garfinkel in the early 1960s. The main ideas behind it are set out in his book "Studies
in Ethnomethodology" (1967). Ethnomethodology simply means the study of the
ways in which people make sense of their social world.
It differs from other sociological perspectives in one very important
respect. Although Functionalists, Marxists and Symbolic Interactionists are all markedly
different, they all assume that the social world is essentially orderly, that is that
patterns of behaviour and interaction in society are regular and systematic rather than
haphazard and chaotic. Of course they all explain this social order in different ways.
Functionalists regard it as the outcome of value consensus in society, which ensures that
behaviour conforms to generally accepted norms. Marxists see it as a result of the
subordination of one class to another, it is precarious and prone to disruption by
revolution but nevertheless it exists. Interactionists differ from these
macro-perspectives in that they see order less as a feature of the social system but more
as something that is created and recreated everyday in the multiplicity of interaction
situations. It is ‘negotiated order’ Which results from the processes of
definition, interpretation and negotiation which constitute social interaction. However as
with Functionalism and Marxism, social order is presumed to be an objective feature of
social life.
By contrast, Ethnomethodologists start out with the assumption that
social order is illusory. They believe that social life merely appears to be orderly; in
reality it is potentially chaotic. For them social order is constructed in the minds of
social actors as society confronts the individual as a series of sense impressions and
experiences which she or he must somehow organise into a coherent pattern.
Garfinkel suggests that the way individuals bring order to, or make
sense of their social world is through a psychological process, which he calls "the
documentary method". This method firstly consists of selecting certain facts from a
social situation, which seem to conform to a pattern and then making sense of these facts
in terms of the pattern. Once the pattern has been established, it is used as a framework
for interpreting new facts, which arise within the situation.
To demonstrate the documentary method in action, Garfinkel set up an
experiment in the Psychiatry department of a university. He asked a number of students to
take part in the experiment, telling them that it involved a new form of Psychotherapy.
The students were invited to talk about their personal problems with an
‘advisor’ who was separated from them by a screen. They could not see the
advisor and could only communicate with him via an intercom. They were to ask him a series
of questions about their problems to which he would respond by answering either
‘yes’ or ‘no’. What the students didn’t know was that these
responses were not authentic answers to the questions posed but a predetermined sequence
of yes and no answers drawn from a table of random numbers.
Garfinkel found that although there was no real consistency in the
answers given to the questions asked the students nevertheless managed to make sense of
them, discerning some underlying pattern in the advice they were being given. Most found
the advice reasonable and helpful. This was so even when, as must inevitably happen when
answers are given randomly, some of the advice was contradictory. Thus in one case a
student asked: "so you think I should drop out of school then?" and received a
‘yes’ response. Surprised by this he asked, "You really think I should drop
out of school?" only to be given a ‘no’ answer. Rather than dismissing the
advice as nonsense, the student struggled to find its meaning, looking back for a pattern
in the advisors' responses, referring back to previous answers, trying to make sense of
the contradiction terms of the advisors’ knowledge of this problem. Never did it
occur to the student to doubt the sincerity of the advisor.
What the students were doing throughout these counselling sessions,
Garfinkel argues, was constructing a social reality to make sense of an often-senseless
interaction. By using the documentary method they were able to bring order to what was in
fact a chaotic situation.
