Ethnomethodology

Abstract

Ethnomethodology originates in Harold Garfinkel's (1917–2011) analysis of “social order.” It is a “sociological attitude” that fundamentally differs from the ways in which social order is conceived in “traditional” sociology. Rather than conceiving the everyday as disorderly and messy, ethnomethodology examines the orderliness and organization of social action in specific circumstances. Its studies reveal the methods of commonsense and practical reasoning through which actors render the organization and meaning of their action “observable‐and‐reportable,” that is, “accountable.” Organization and meaning are not seen as predefined by the context of the situation of their occurrence but as emergent properties of social action. Ethnomethodology considers action and context, therefore, as reflexively interrelated, forming a coherent “gestalt” by mutually and continually adapting to each other. Harold Garfinkel calls the process through which orderliness is achieved, following Karl Mannheim, “the documentary method of interpretation.”