Ethnomethodology, Conversation Analysis and Constructive Analysis

Description

This book revisits the arguments by which Harvey Sacks and Harold Garfinkel opposed the widespread attempt in the social sciences to construct disciplinary theories and methods in place of common-sense knowledge of human action, and proposed instead an alternative that would investigate the organised methods of natural language use and common-sense reasoning that constitute social orders – arguments that led to the establishment and proliferation of ethnomethodology and conversation analysis. As the very "constructive analysis" that they opposed has begun to be incorporated into influential lines of research in ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, the authors return to the founding insights of the field and reiterate the importance of Garfinkel and Sacks’ original and controversial proposals for an "alternate" sociology of practical action and practical reasoning. Showing how constructive analysis has become entrenched in ethnomethodology and conversation analysis and arguing for a need to "re-boot" these approaches, this volume constitutes a call for a renewal of the radical alternative proposed by Garfinkel and Sacks. Dedication Contents Preface Acknowledgements Introduction Part I: Foundations 1 On Formal Structures of Practical Action 2 Sequential Analysis as an Investigation of Formal Structures of Practical Action 3 Ethnomethodological Studies of Work Part II: Conversation Analysis 4 Autonomous Structures of Conversational Actions 5 Technical and Vernacular Description Part III: Studies of Work and Organisational Contexts 6 Institutional Talk 7 Workplace and Work-Practice Studies Part IV: Normalising EMCA 8 Importing Constructive Analytic Theory and Method 9 The Problem with Collections 10 A Case Study: Apologies and Constructive Analysis 11 Conclusion References Subject Index Name Index