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17 - Developing Ethnomethodology: Garfinkel on the Constitutive Interactional Practices in Social Systems of Interaction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 December 2020

By
Anne Rawls
Edited by
Peter Kivisto
Peter Kivisto
Affiliation:
Augustana College, Illinois
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Summary

This chapter focuses on the historical development of ethnomethodology, presenting Harold Garfinkel’s career-spanning efforts to develop a theory of the constitutive interactional practices in social systems of interaction. Specifically, it examines five stages in that developmental process: 1939–1942 in North Carolina; 1942–1946 in the Army Air Force; 1946-1952 at Harvard; 1952–1953 at Princeton; and finally his long career at UCLA, extending from 1954 to 2011.

Anne Rawls is Professor of Sociology at Bentley University. Her research interests focus broadly on social theory, with emphases on ethnomethodology, communication studies, democracy, and race relations. In addition to publishing extensively on Garfinkel and ethnomethodology, she has also published on Durkheim and DuBois. She recently coauthored Tacit Racism with Waverly Duck.

Keywords

Conversation analysisDurkheimethnomethodologyGarfinkelParsons
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Social Theory , pp. 343 - 368
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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References

References

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Unpublished Manuscripts by Harold Garfinkel in the Garfinkel Archive

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“Memorandum #1: Notes on the Sociological Attitude.” 1951.Google Scholar
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“Notes on the Information Apperception Test.” 1947.Google Scholar
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“Toward a Sociological Theory of Information.” Organizational Behavior Project Manuscript #3, April 17, 1952.Google Scholar

Coauthored Works by Garfinkel in the Garfinkel Archive

Garfinkel, Harold, Robert Boguslaw, and Warren Pelton. “Decision Making in Complex Situations: An Analysis of a Chess Tournament.” Unpublished, 1957.Google Scholar
Garfinkel, Harold, and Bittner, Egon. Presentation of the Clinic Study in Garfinkel’s class. Unpublished, 1959. Transcript in the Garfinkel Archive.Google Scholar

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