Ethnomethodology as Radical Sociology: An Expansive Appreciation of Melvin Pollner's 'Constitutive and Mundane Versions of Labeling Theory'

Abstract

Melvin Pollner's article on "Constitutive and Mundane Versions of Labeling Theory" appeared in the very first volume of Human Studies, twenty-five years ago. Even though Pollner packaged his analysis as something of an ethnomethodological intervention in the 'labeling theory' literature of the six? ties and seventies, his analysis nevertheless holds up remarkably well today. Part of its longevity is due to the fact that labeling theory (not to mention the sociology of deviance) is still very much indebted to pre-eighties scholarship. But part of this is because Pollner's engagement with labeling theory was much more than that. It was, in an important sense, nothing less than an engagement between ethnomethodological and conventional-sociological sensibilities about the relationship between (1) accounts of social phenomena, and (2) the social phenomena which are ostensibly 'given,' prior to and independent of their accountability (intelligibility, observability, reportability, etc.). In this respect, as an ethnomethodological engagement with an alternative version of sociological description, reasoning, and heuristics, Pollner's paper holds up very well indeed. Two provisos are necessary, at the start, before pursuing an expansive read? ing and appreciation of this sort. First, Pollner's own discussion is rather modest in scope, in that he only hints at the relevance of his arguments be? yond the topic of deviance in the final footnote (1978, p. 287). Labeling theory is similarly modest in scope, in that its insights about the importance of labeling and procedural explanations could have been pursued well beyond the scope of the sociology of deviance (cf. Becker, 1973, p. 178). But previous limita? tions of scope need not prevent us from looking beyond the immediate topic of deviance in order to appreciate the broader issues implicated in Pollner's engagement with labeling theory. Pollner's paper can be read as an exercise in applied programmatics, a specific and pointed application of the more ab? stract ethnomethodological programme for respecifying sociological topics and sociological description. In accord with this respecification, members' methods of practical reasoning and practical action (or "ethnomethods"), in? cluding members' methods of sense-making, referencing, describing and ex