Breaching Experiment,

or Going Garfinkeling.

Ethno- The folk

Methods- The way of
Ethnomethodology- The way of the folk.

Tacit Rules- The unspoken rules of society.

Breach- breaking an unspoken rule.
Ad-hocing-creating meaning on the fly in a problematic situation..
Fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants- There is no script for the moment, no recipe, you are in
freefall. Social life is improvisation.

Your next mission, should you choose to take it on, is to break a tacit social rule and see
what happens. Breaking a tacit rule makes social interaction “problematic.”

See how people work to determine a meaning, or assign a meaning to what is happening.

When you break the rule:

1. Observe how you feel doing it.
2. Observe the reactions of others to your doing it.
3. Observe why you finally stop the experiment, if you have to (some experiments
this applies more than others).
4. If you do the rule breaking with others, get a report from them on their
experiment.
5. If you do the rule breaking with others, you might try to find a way to do it by
yourself to, to compare the experience to doing it with others.

Write about it and think in terms of using Garfinkel’s ideas to explain what happened to
you.