Ethnomethodology

Question 1

ethnomethodology is associated with the work of

Answer 1

Garfinkel

Question 2

Ethnomethodology refers to

Answer 2

the description of the methods or interpretive procedures which people use to make sense of and construct order in their everyday social world

Question 3

Ethnomethodology differs from most theories (including interactionism) because

Answer 3

it rejects the view that any kind of social structure exists outside of individuals consciousness and suggests that social order is an illusion which exists because people create it in their own minds and impose a sense of order

Question 4

How does ethnomethodology suggest people impose a sense of order

Answer 4

using their own common-sense procedures and culturally embedded rules and assumptions, which give society a semblance of stability as people share these assumptions

Question 5

Atkinson’s study of suicide (1970s/80s)

Answer 5

suggested that classifying a sudden death as a suicide was a social construction of meaning - a corpse is just a dead body until people decide to label it as a ‘suicide’ or ‘an accident’,’a murder’ or ‘a natural death’
therefore we can’t find the causes of suicide because we can’t ask the people concerned (they’re dead)

Question 6

Garfinkel - breaching experiments

Answer 6

wanted to see how people make sense of the world and impose order
sought to expose assumptions and imposed rules by examining reactions to someone ‘breaching’ the taken-for-granted everyday assumptions and norms
for example, he asked students to behave like lodgers in their own homes, and they observed bewilderment, concern, confusion and anger in their parents, showing how fragile the constructed social order is