Ethnometh-a-what-a?

When discussing the topics at the beginning of the semester, this was the topic that looked the most daunting to me. At first glance of the word I was like WHAA!?!

Upon actually learning about it though, it doesn’t seem so confusing.  Quite surprisingly I actually found it a little bit interesting. So basically this Garfinkel guy conducted what he called breaching experiments, where he essentially broke those rules that aren’t necessarily explicit but are those that help situations make sense. Unlike someone like me, who would do something like that just for shits and giggs, he actually had a pretty valid reason for doing so. Reason being was to see how people would react to these unwritten rules being broken. Turns out majority of the people at least made some acknowledgement of it, whether it be adjusting what they themselves were doing or blatantly asking him something along the lines of “Like, what the heck are you doing bro?” This experiment was based on a game and not a real life situation and Garfinkel acknowledged that the results of this experiment don’t necessarily parallel exactly to regular human life. This is because breaking the rules in human life, could possibly lead to more consequences. Despite this, it’s still a rather interesting thing to think about.

I found this little gem that basically hates the whole ethnomethedology concept. Though I don’t agree with it, I found it interesting the points it brought up. Gordon (1976) (so yeah, a little bit outdated) basically says that the concepts underlying ethnomethedology are created based on misinterpreted information and more specifically the ‘mistaken’ reliance on phenomology. Also according to him it is based too much on subjectivity. But I think subjectivity is the case with a lot of things regarding micro sociology, because in a sense that is one of the features that make it micro. Don’t mind me casually undermining a scholar. Badass over here.

My final thoughts are that whilst ethnomethedology looks like some scary word that makes you want to throw up when thinking about writing about it, it’s actually rather simple (I think, if I understood it right) and interesting. 

Also felt the need to share the love this week with a comment at http://eyeonpeople.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/breaking-rules-of-reality.html?showComment=1346833044419#c8701815932147228822

Heritage, John. 1984. “The Morality of Cognition.” Pp. 75-102 in Garfinkel and Ethnomethedology. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Gordon, R. (1976). Ethnomethedology: A Radical Critique. Human Relations, 29(2), 193-202. Doi 10.1177/001872677602900208