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Ethnomethodology theory is a sociological approach that seeks to understand the social order and rules that structure everyday life through analyzing the common sense methods people use to make sense of and function in their daily lives.
Rather than studying what “should” happen, it examines how people construct social reality and the tacit procedures they follow to create and interpret meaning in social interactions.
Key Takeaways
Principles
The ethnomethodological approach focuses on the capacities of people as members of a collective rather than their individuating traits as distinct persons. It is primarily not a theory seeking to analyze social life (Nickerson, 2021).
Ethnomethodology assumes that those norms are both uniform and shared, and that violations thereof can unveil for analysis dynamics of a community as well as the manner of its members’ reactions to such transgressions.
Additionally, ethnomethodologists hold that their particular discipline strives to unveil a society’sbehavioral normswhich its members may otherwise remain unconscious of, and incapable of articulating.
Examples
Another example stems of a well-known set of ethnomethodological experiments (Crossman, 2020). Herein, college students were directed to act like guests in their homes without informing their families that this dissimulation was part of an experiment.
Meanwhile, the students themselves had been accused of being mean, inconsiderate and impolite. However, the students were able to see via the experiment how even informal norms, such as those governing homes, could remain structured, and if broken, could become evident.
Pros and Cons
Ethnomethodology functions as an effective descriptive tool at a micro level. It can unveil group dynamics and communal norms which exert a potent influence on society while simultaneously escaping notice.
However, at the same time, ethnomethodology is not a sound explanatory tool capable of accounting for phenomena at a macro level. It avoids normative judgments and has been criticized for wanting a tenable epistemological foundation (Lynch, 2001).
Further Information
What is Ethnomethodology?
Attewell, P. (1974). Ethnomethodology since Garfinkel. Theory and society, 1(2), 179-210.
Heritage, J. (1987). Ethnomethodology. Social theory today, 224-272.
Linstead, S. (2006). Ethnomethodology and sociology: an introduction. The Sociological Review, 54(3), 399-404.
References
Crossman, Ashley. (2020). Using Ethnomethodology to Understand Social Order. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-ethnomethodology-3026553
Garfinkel, H. (1967).Ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs.
Garfinkel, H. (1974) “The origins of the term ethnomethodology”, in R.Turner (Ed.) Ethnomethodology, Penguin, Harmondsworth, pp 15–18.
Lynch, M. (2001). Science and Technology Studies: Ethnomethodology. In N. J. Smelser & P. B. Baltes (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (pp. 13644-13647). Oxford: Pergamon.
Nickerson, C. (2021). Using Ethnomethodology to Understand Social Order. Simply Psychology. www.simplypsychology.org/what-is-ethnomethodology.html
Williams, J. (2001). Phenomenology in Sociology. In N. J. Smelser & P. B. Baltes (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (pp. 11361-11363). Oxford: Pergamon.
Saul McLeod, PhD
BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester
Saul McLeod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.
Ayesh PereraResearcherB.A, MTS, Harvard UniversityAyesh Perera, a Harvard graduate, has worked as a researcher in psychology and neuroscience under Dr. Kevin Majeres at Harvard Medical School.
Ayesh PereraResearcherB.A, MTS, Harvard University
Ayesh Perera
Researcher
B.A, MTS, Harvard University
Ayesh Perera, a Harvard graduate, has worked as a researcher in psychology and neuroscience under Dr. Kevin Majeres at Harvard Medical School.
