The Ethnomethodology Program: Legacies and Prospects

Harold Garfinkel's ethnomethodology has significantly impacted sociology and conversation analysis, offering a new way of understanding how people make sense of their everyday world. This volume celebrates his contributions and explores how ethnomethodology emerged, the empirical consequences of his work, and the significant contemporary work that has resulted from it. Chapters highlight its distinctive forms of ethnographic inquiry and its influences on various substantive domains. EM has helped to set the agenda for gender studies and developed insights into racial and ethnic features of everyday life and experience. There is still unfinished business, suggesting how these accomplishments set the stage for future endeavors that will benefit from EM-inspired approaches to social organization and interaction.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 496 pages
Publication date: 21 November 2022
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc

Ethnomethodology, a discipline pioneered by Harold Garfinkel over fifty years ago, offers a fresh perspective on how individuals interpret their everyday lives. Since the publication of his seminal book, Studies in Ethnomethodology, in 1967, there has been a substantial yet often overlooked expansion in the field. While studies in ethnomethodology continue to flourish, the full impact of Garfinkel's insights and inspiration for ongoing research remains to be fully recognized. This volume serves as a tribute to Harold Garfinkel's profound contributions to sociology and conversation analysis, delving into the genesis of ethnomethodology, its empirical implications, and the significant contemporary work that has emerged from it. Douglas W. Maynard and John Heritage have assembled a diverse group of experts from various theoretical and empirical domains to compile the first comprehensive collection of work on ethnomethodology, encompassing its applications in studies of work, conversation analysis, and other subdisciplines. Chapters highlight the distinctive forms of ethnographic inquiry employed in ethnomethodology and its influences on a wide range of substantive domains, including legal environments, science and technology, workplace and organizational inquiries, survey research, social problems and deviance, and disability and atypical interaction. The book elucidates how ethnomethodology, particularly through its focus on gender studies, played a pivotal role in shaping the research agenda. It also offers valuable insights into inquiries into racial and ethnic features of everyday life and experience. However, as Garfinkel himself noted, there remains unfinished business, indicating that ethnomethodological inquiries are ongoing and evolving. This dynamic field continues to push the boundaries of knowledge, fostering new understandings of human behavior and social interaction.

Weight: 748g
Dimension: 155 x 235 x 32 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780190854416