Ethnomethodological Studies Research Articles

Accomplishing lesson ending: bringing lesson to an end

ABSTRACT This ethnomethodological study examines the dynamics of lesson closure in diverse classroom settings, drawing on the sequential analysis of five video-recorded lessons in history, literature, chemistry, and geography classes. The detailed analysis of teacher-student interactions during the lesson endings in a tenth-grade high school classroom in Ankara sheds light on the temporal, social, and interactional processes involved in concluding lessons. The ringing of the bell emerges as a key temporal marker signalling the end of the lesson, while teachers play a central role in orchestrating closure through verbal and non-verbal cues. The interactional dynamics between teachers and students also reveal the negotiation of roles and responsibilities, with students demonstrating orientation to the lesson closure through preparatory actions. Furthermore, the structured nature of lesson closure is evident in sequential patterns and the deployment of terminal components. The study highlights the dynamic nature of classroom interactions during lesson endings, underscoring the formal interactional dynamics at play. Overall, the findings contribute to the understanding of lesson closure processes and offer insights for educators, researchers, and policymakers aiming to enhance teaching and learning experiences in diverse educational contexts.

Moments of togetherness: humour and playful interactions in the toddler peer group

ABSTRACT Toddlers often use humour to engage their peers in acts of playful interactions as they build a sense of togetherness through a ‘mutual we’. In this paper, we discuss the findings of a study where the aim was to examine the embodied strategies toddlers use to engage their peers in interactions that are playful and full of humour. The study is an ethnomethodological study using conversation analysis (EMCA) to examine interactions that were video recorded over a nine-month period in an childhood education and care (ECEC) setting in Iceland. The findings explore how toddlers use humour connected to their available environmental resources to recruit other children into their play and explore social conventions and rules within their setting. These findings contribute to the growing body of early childhood research that positions this young age group as competent and imaginative in co-creating moments of togetherness, building the ‘mutual we’ within their peer group.

Cultural Perspectives on Financial Accountability in a Balinese Traditional Village

Abstract This study aims to develop accountability practices that harmonize with the local spiritual culture in the Jimbaran traditional village. The current accountability practices are viewed not just as formal procedures but also as informal practices involving moral and ethical relationships with God. An ethnomethodological study integrated with Catur Marga culture as a critical perspective revealed the problem of delays in submitting accountability reports due to the shift in the cultural meaning of “ngayah” and the shift in the implementation of religious ceremonies from spiritual practices to more formal activities. These problems can be addressed by synergizing Catur Marga principles with accountability practices. First, involve community representatives, religious leaders, and traditional elders in the village's financial management, as in regular meetings to align the vision and mission to strengthen the “ngayah” motivation in governance and financial accountability. Second, the traditional village governments must consistently provide Dharmawacana and management accounting training to balance scientific knowledge with traditional spiritual–cultural knowledge. Last is the development of the Catur Marga-based Pararem, which regulates the technical aspects of financial management accountability and should be synchronized with the spirit of devotion to God to preserve the local spiritual culture in the Jimbaran traditional village.

Ethnomethodology Study on The Implementation of Social Responsibility Activities at PT Pertamina Lubricants

Financial Services Authority Regulation No. 51/POJK.03/2017, social and environmental responsibility or abbreviated as TJSL is a commitment to participate in sustainable economic development in order to improve the quality of life and the environment that is beneficial, both for the company itself, the local community, and the community in general TJSL or what we commonly know as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is part of sustainable development that must be carried out by all development actors, namely the government, the community, and also the business community. This study uses a qualitative method with ethnomethodology studies to reveal the practice of CSR implementation at PT Pertamina Lubricants from 2019 to 2023. The purpose of this study is to reveal CSR practices in an effort to maintain sustainability activities at PT Pertamina Lubricants. The triple bottom line and good corporate governance approach are used in this study. Data collection was carried out through interviews, field observations, and literature studies. The results show that PT Pertamina Lubricants has transformed its CSR practices by emphasizing Creating Shared Value (CSV). CSR practices during the Covid-19 pandemic are still ongoing by implementing applicable protocols. The triple bottom line bottom line approach, namely profit, people, and planet, and good corporate governance , has also been implemented.

A Touch of Companionship

Dance activities are promoted with a range of benefits in institutional settings for people living with dementia (PLWD) and necessitate the active involvement of companions for engagement. This ethnomethodological study uses multimodal conversation analysis to explore how the role of the companion emerges to engage PLWD in dance activities, with special attention on different uses of touch to support engagement in embodied interactions. Analyses of video recordings focus on interactions between companions and PLWD in both structured and unstructured dance activities in institutional settings in Canada, Finland, and the UK. We demonstrate how companions use touch and other multimodal resources to engage participants with others in dance activities. We argue that the role of the companion emerges in interaction and can shift from participant to participant, including PLWD. We conclude with discussion and recommendations for supporting the engagement of PLWD with sensitivity to how actions obligate responses.

Routines and Daily Dynamics of Young People with Borderline Intelligence: An Ethnomethodological Study

Young people with borderline intelligence functioning (BIF) have intellectual functioning at the border between intellectual disability and those considered neurotypical. This population group is often underrepresented in social research, which makes it difficult to understand their experiences and needs. The research aims to understand the daily lives of young people with BIF to identify needs that society might not be aware of. The study was conducted with a sample of 30 young people. The ethnomethodological design was appropriate for the study of the routines and daily dynamics of these young people, which allowed the researchers to understand the experiences and meanings of the participants from their own perspective. The analysis was carried out in the context of the subject of Qualitative Research Tools in Social Work with fourth-year students, through participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and field diaries. Data analysis was performed using the Atlas.ti23 qualitative content analysis program. The findings suggest a strong dependence on family and social support; a daily life marked by challenges; and a search for autonomy, among many other aspects. Collaboration with the participants allowed the researchers to better understand their experiences and needs from reflexivity.

Studi Etnometodologi Tentang Penerapan Biaya Pernikahan Gorontalo dalam Adat Tolobalango dan Dutu

This research aims to determine the implementation of Gorontalo wedding costs in Tolobalango and Dutu customs. This research method uses qualitative research methods with an ethnomethodological study approach. Data collection methods were carried out by means of interviews, observation and documentation in the form of notes, photos and recordings. The research location is in Hulonthalangi District, Tenda Village, Gorontalo City. The research results show that there are accounting values ​​contained in Tolobalango and Dutu customs. This is proven by the existence of actions to minimize costs because in this research the two customs were carried out together. This indicates that costs are not just about generating profit or income, but also have important value when viewed from a cultural perspective. And it shows that there are expenses incurred in this wedding ceremony, including: 1) traditional costs, 2) operational costs. Customary fees consist of 1) Tonggu fees; 2) Dingo Fee; 3) Maharru fees; 4) Bungalow Fee. Operational costs consist of 1) Clothing Costs; 2)Makeup Fees; 3)Henna Cost; 4) Catering Costs; 5) Host Fee. The Tolobalango and Dutu traditional processions also contain family values, the value of love and the value of trust.

Discursive Analysis of Pediatrician's Therapeutic Approach towards Childhood Fever and Its Contextual Differences: An Ethnomethodological Study.

Introduction: Fever stands out as the predominant clinical indicator in infancy. Pediatricians encounter fever routinely in their daily practice, playing a crucial role in their interactions with children and families. Objective: The aim is to examine pediatricians' viewpoints, understanding, and approaches regarding childhood fever in two healthcare settings: pediatric hospitalization (emergency and inpatient ward) and primary care. Methods: A qualitative study was conducted using an ethnomethodological approach. Pediatricians working in the specified pediatric settings participated in in-depth interviews where theoretical clinical cases were presented for analysis. Results: Following the examination of the discourses, the codes were organized into eight categories: Understanding of fever, Significance ascribed to fever, Therapeutic strategies, Engagement with the evidence, Family apprehensions regarding fever, Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Inter- and intra-professional relationships, and Suggestions for change: Conclusions: Pediatricians acknowledge the importance of addressing discomfort in the treatment of fever, but express challenges in implementing these recommendations. Pediatricians in inpatient settings emphasize the need for enhanced parental education from primary care, while those in primary care recognize the potential for improvement. Inpatient pediatricians are open to implementing changes in their daily practices, particularly concerning the administration of antipyretics.

Discursive analysis of nursing care toward childhood fever and its contextual differences: An ethnomethodological study.

Fever is the most common clinical sign during infancy. Nurses deal with fever in children most directly and it is an integral aspect of their role as pediatric nurses. The objective of this study is to analyze the perceptions, knowledge and attitudes toward childhood fever of nurses in three health contexts: pediatric hospitalization, pediatric emergency and primary care. To respond this objective, a qualitative study with ethnomethodological approach has been carried out. In-depth interviews were conducted and theoretical clinical cases were presented to nurses working in pediatrics in the three settings studied. After the analysis of the discourses, the codes were classified into three categories: static and number-centric knowledge, dependent nursing attitude, and unconscious model nurses. On the one hand, when we analyze and compare the perceptions, attitudes and knowledge of the nurses between the different contexts, we find differences that consist mainly of what the context requires of them. On the other hand, in general and regardless of the context, the nurses interviewed place themselves in a traditional framework when faced with the phenomenon of fever in children.

Construction of Household Accounting Practices: an Islamic Ethnomethodological Study

<em><span lang="EN-US">This research departs from the problem of modern accounting knowledge, which is limited to material and ignores non-material values, and studies of household accounting based on non-material values, which are rarely disclosed in accounting studies. This study aims to construct household cost accounting based on non-material values. This study uses an Islamic paradigm with an Islamic ethnomethodological approach. The results of the study found that household expenses were recorded by the wives, both recorded on paper and in memory. The income earned by the husband is sufficient to finance household needs, saved to finance unexpected needs, and finance business capital. There are expenses for alms, but alms are not considered a burden but a means of purifying wealth and charitable savings in the afterlife. The three household cost accounting practices are based on the values of responsibility, cooperation, and faith in the Creator.</span></em>

Making the cut: the embodiment of experience in hair salons

We explore the embodied nature of the customer experience. Engaging prior research, we suggest marketing literature is still coming to terms with how best to incorporate the body into its studies, noting manuscripts rarely attend to the bodies of customers moving in situ or analyse what customers do and achieve with their bodies. As a result, theoretical accounts remain quite disconnected from the de facto activities that comprise many marketing processes. Drawing on ethnomethodological study policies, and Wittgenstein’s notion of language games, our paper zooms-in on embodied conduct, analysing video recordings of consultations in hair salons. We analyse how customers embody thoughts about and emotional responses to the service provided. Rather than separating mind and body, we identify precise moments where customers draw service employees into their experience during live interaction. In so doing, the paper offers a vantage point from which to think anew about the customer experience as something that is public, shared, and thus accountable.

Respecifying social change: the obsolescence of practices and the transience of technology.

This article proposes that social change, a fundamental topic in sociological theory, can be productively revisited by attending to studies in ethnomethodology and conversation analysis (EM/CA). We argue that the corpus of EM/CA research, from the 1960s until the present day, provides details of the constitutive and identifying aspects of practices and activities that gradually transform into descriptions of obsolescent practices and activities, and that this corpus can be revisited to learn about the ways people used to do things. Taking landline and mobile telephony as a case in point, we show that the subtle details of conversational practices are anchored in the technology used as part of the contemporary lifeworld, and that they stand for the particularities of routine social structures of their time period. We also discuss the temporal aspects of the competences required on the part of members and analysts to make sense of encountered practices in terms of their ordinary recognizability and interactional consequentiality, pointing to the anchoring of social life in its historical time. Finally, we conclude by considering different ways of respecifying social change by attending to various kinds of historicity and obsolescence of social praxis.

Responsibility as the Spirit of Zakat Accounting Practices: Islamic Ethnomethodology Study

This study aims to reveal the local cultural values of zakat fitra accounting practices. This research uses the Islamic paradigm. The approach used is Islamic ethnomethodology. There are five data analysis stages: charity, knowledge, faith, revelation information, and courtesy. The results of the study indicate that there is a value of responsibility behind the accounting practice of distributing zakat fitra. This value is reflected through the actions of the amil zakat, who use data from the government, data and advice from residents about citizens who are entitled to receive zakat fitra, amil zakat coordinators who distribute zakat not only to less fortunate citizens but amil officers who are by the Shari'a Islam. As well as the decision of the amil to distribute zakat funds three days before Eid al-Fitr. It is intended that zakat recipients can use these funds to meet their needs. In the Islamic culture of Gorontalo, the value of responsibility is often advised through the expression (lumadu) "eya dila pito-pito'o" meaning God does not close his eyes. This phrase means that whatever we do, Allah is always watching.

Perception of Obesity in Adult Women

Obesity is a health problem that has increased since 1975. For this reason, to treat the disease, a transdisciplinary intervention is needed, however, this problem can be affected by the perception that people have about obesity, because the way people see and approach the problem is influenced by the sociocultural environment.
 Objective: to know what is the perception and approach that adult women from 19 to 49 years of age have about obesity.
 Methods: qualitative ethno-methodological study through an in-depth interview that included 6 adult women from 19 to 49 years of age whit diagnosed obesity from Mixquiahuala, Hidalgo. The data was then analyzed with the ATLAS.ti software.
 Results: people may understand that obesity is a problem, and identify methods to control body weight, however, some tend to minimize the problem, making it difficult for them to achieve satisfactory results, and may face physical and social difficulties because of the weight excess they live with.
 Conclusion: People are aware of obesity; as well as different strategies for its treatment, however, they do not consider it a health problem, even minimizing it. Therefore, it is necessary to develop strategies that allow people to identify obesity as a disease associated to health risks.

Beyond Utterances: Embodied Creativity and Compliance in Dance and Dementia

Practices of creativity and compliance intersect in interaction when directing local dances remotely for people living with dementia and their carers in institutional settings. This ethnomethodological study focused on how artistic mechanisms are understood and structured by participants in response to on-screen instruction. Video data were collected from two long-term care facilities in Canada and Finland in a pilot study of a dance program that extended internationally from Canada to Finland at the onset of COVID-19. Fourteen hours of video data were analyzed using multimodal conversation analysis of initiation–response sequences. In this paper, we identify how creative instructed actions are produced in compliance with multimodal directives in interaction when mediated by technology and facilitated by copresent facilitators. We provide examples of how participants’ variably compliant responses in relation to dance instruction, from following a lead to coordinating with others, produce different creative actions from embellishing to improvising. Our findings suggest that cocreativity may be realized at intersections of compliance and creativity toward reciprocity. This research contributes to interdisciplinary discussions about the potential of arts-based practices in social inclusion, health, and well-being by studying how dance instruction is understood and realized remotely and in copresence in embodied instructed action and interaction.

Ethnomethodology's Legacies and Prospects

This article considers the large range of empirical research that has emerged under the broad aegis of ethnomethodology, in the period between the publication of Studies in Ethnomethodology (1967) and the present day. Starting with a brief overview of Garfinkel's intellectual career, we discuss the relation of ethnomethodology to Schütz's phenomenology, Parsons's systems theory, and Weber's concern with meaning construction. A central concern was with the problem of contextuality, which Garfinkel initially addressed by drawing on, while fashioning in his own way, Mannheim's concern with the documentary method of interpretation. Ethnomethodologically-related studies have proliferated in a variety of domains, including conversation analysis, membership categorization analysis, and (related to Garfinkel's own early work) empirical initiatives in the study of everyday life involving racial, gender and other minoritized groups. Further ethnomethodological studies emerged from legal environments, from social problems and deviance, and in relation to ability differences. Still other investigations concerned instructed action and its ramifications for the sciences, technology and organizations, including the workplace. A longstanding concern for ethnomethodology has been with the conduct of social sciences—how coding is done, how surveys are conducted, and how standardization is achieved. Many of these areas have given rise to thriving subfields, have dedicated journals, and resulted in applications. Few initiatives in sociological theory have resulted in a wider range of innovative research than Garfinkel's and successor studies showing, explicating, and demonstrating the organization of details in social life and their consequences for social order.

Wittgensteinian Ethnomethodology (1): Gurwitsch, Garfinkel, and Wittgenstein and the Meaning of Praxeological Gestalts

Garfinkel’s Ethnomethodology (EM) at its core involves a praxeological, or interactional, respecification of Gestalt phenomena. In early EM, this is pursued through the development of a category of praxeological Gestalten in which social facts (or social units) are respecified as Gestalt phenomena, where members are the constituents and the social unit is the whole or Gestalt, produced praxeologically by the methodic work of its members. In later work, Garfinkel would praxeologically transpose traditional perceptual Gestalt phenomena, such as music, to explore the interactional work done in the production and perception of those phenomena. In developing EM by praxeologically reconfiguring Gestaltism, Garfinkel drew on the constitutive phenomenology of Aron Gurwitsch, wherein Gurwitsch sought to integrate Gestalt Psychology and phenomenology. In drawing on Gurwitsch, while also being informed by the work of Schütz and, later, Merleau-Ponty, EM is often depicted as either heavily indebted to phenomenology or as a distinct type of phenomenology: praxeological phenomenology, perhaps. At the same time, parallels have been drawn between Ludwig Wittgenstein’s later work and EM, since Garfinkel’s Studies in Ethnomethodology was published in 1967. The parallels drawn have often centred on the treatment of rules and rule-following and on the similarities in the treatment of meaning in EM and in Wittgenstein’s later work. However, given the centrality of Gestalt psychology to the development of EM, it is worth noting that in his later manuscripts Wittgenstein discussed Gestalt phenomena and Gestalt Psychology extensively and in ways that often anticipate what Garfinkel would do with Gestaltist ideas. It is, therefore, worth exploring the similarities and differences between Wittgenstein’s, Gurwitsch’s and Garfinkel’s engagement with Gestaltism. This is what I seek to do in this article. In conclusion, I propose that EM should be seen, like Wittgenstein, as post-phenomenological.

Transposing Gestalt Phenomena from Visual Fields to Practical and Interactional Work: Garfinkel’s and Sacks’ Social Praxeology

In lectures and writings in the decades following the publication of Studies in Ethnomethodology [1967], Harold Garfinkel, the founder of ethnomethodology, developed what he called a “misreading” of the phenomenological writings of Aron Gurwitsch, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and others. Garfinkel’s “misreading” included a selective and creative treatment of themes that Gurwitsch drew from Gestalt psychology, such as figure-ground, Gestalt contexture, and the phenomenal field. Rather than identifying these themes with visual perception demonstrated with picture-puzzles (for example, of animals hidden in foliage) and line drawings of reversible figures, Garfinkel used them to demonstrate praxeological and interactional phenomena: organizations of embodied activity that constitute fields of collective action. Phenomenal fields, for Garfinkel, are formed through embodied work performed in concert with the actions of others. Although Harvey Sacks, the founder of Conversation Analysis, did not explicitly mention Gurwitsch, phenomenology or Gestalt psychology in his writings and transcribed lectures, some of his writings on the sequential organization of conversation seem informed, if only indirectly through his relationship with Garfinkel, by Gurwitsch’s treatment of visual and auditory phenomena. Both Garfinkel and Sacks devised innovative ways to transpose Gestalt phenomena from perceptual psychology to social formations.

Initiating interactions in the toddler peer group

Two-year old children often express their understanding and intentions through embodied interactions as they co-produce social relationships. This article presents findings from an ethnomethodological study using conversation analysis to explore turn-taking in toddlers’ interactions in a preschool in Iceland. Here, we focus on how toddlers initiate interaction through touch and gaze. These findings demonstrate that toddlers are adept at reading social cues from their peers and are competent at turn-taking and repair in embodied interactions resulting in significant exchanges in the peer group. As such, this article contributes to a growing body of research that demonstrates toddler’s competencies in organizing their own social worlds through embodied strategies that co-construct peer relationships in competent ways.

Time structures in ethnomethodological and conversation analysis studies of practical activity

Time is regarded as the immanent dimension for the social experience. This phenomenologically informed perspective of time is built into the ethnomethodological programme jointly proposed by Garfinkel and Sacks as they set out to uncover social orders through examining the temporal sequence in practical activity. However, Garfinkel and Sacks took different paths from this initial proposal in their separate development of Ethnomethodological Studies of Work and Conversation Analysis. Focusing on different forms of data, the two programmes adopted different approaches to time and action in constructing the time structures in their sociological description of activity. However, the difference has seldom been subjected to discussion and much less attempt to explore a possible synthesis of the two programmes from there. This article attempts to address this gap by proposing a perspective of multi-layered temporality in social interaction. The analysis examines three extracts from a university communication workshop for students and explicates different modes of how simultaneous sequences can constitute participants’ action in situ: (1) simultaneous sequences by different actors; (2) simultaneous sequences by the same actor; (3) simultaneous sequences within a participatory framework. Contending the social actors’ phenomenological potential to perceive simultaneous sequences in different time frames, we conclude that the ‘situational time’ in EM and ‘conversational time’ in CA can be commensurable. Interweaving different layers of temporality into an ethnomethodological description, practitioners can better reconstruct a ‘reasonable total picture’ of social activity to manifest its complex, seen-but-unnoticed endogenous social order. Beyond ethnomethodology, the multi-layered perspective of time provides the basis for a holistic approach to time, allowing the enquiry of broader social time through studying social life in vivo.