Ethnomethodology

Harold Garfinkel is the main thinker associated with

this perspective, which tends to focus on the minutiae of
everyday life – that is, our interactions from moment to
moment – to show that there are ‘rules’ that we tend to
follow. It asserts there is an ‘order’ in the way we conduct our social relationships that is
largely invisible to us and so must be examined. For example, we observe turn-taking in our
conversations but we may not be aware of how we do it. We may have no scruples in
breaking into what our close friends are saying to give our own views but that seldom
happens with our teachers and almost never when speaking with the principal. However, we
seldom hold these processes up for scrutiny, we just live them. Ethnomethodologists would
say that power and status seem to determine who we allow to interrupt us while we are
speaking but we are largely unaware that we follow this ‘order’. This perspective assumes
that everyday life has
a characteristic order because we all conform and agree
about producing that order. We therefore have methods
we use in daily interaction to reinforce that order. The
work of the ethnomethodologist is to uncover and bring
to awareness these shared methods and procedures that
we employ as the basis of our interactions.