Ethnomethodology and the Human Sciences

Description

Traditionally, when the human sciences consider foundational issues such as epistemology and method, they do so by theorising them. Ethnomethodology, however, attempts to make such foundational matters a focus of attention, and directly enquires into them. This book reappraises the significance of ethnomethodology in sociology in particular, and in the human sciences in general. It demonstrates how, through its empirical enquiries into the ordered properties of social action, ethnomethodology provides a radical respecification of the foundations of the human sciences, an achievement that has often been misunderstood. The chapters, by leading scholars, take up the specification of action and order in theorising, logic, epistemology, measurement, evidence, the social actor, cognition, language and culture, and moral judgement, and underscore the ramifications for the human sciences of the ethnomethodologist's approach. This is a systematic and coherent collection which explicitly addresses fundamental conceptual issues. The clear exposition of the central tenets of ethnomethodology is especially welcome. Frontmatter pp i-iv Contents pp v-vi Contributors pp vii-viii Preface pp ix-xii By Graham Button, Polytechnic South West, Plymouth 1 - Introduction: ethnomethodology and the foundational respecification of the human sciences pp 1-9 By Graham Button, Polytechnic South West, Plymouth 2 - Respecification: evidence for locally produced, naturally accountable phenomena of order, logic, reason, meaning, method, etc. in and as of the essential haecceity of immortal ordinary society (I) – an announcement of studies pp 10-19 By Harold Garfinkel, University of California 3 - Logic: ethnomethodology and the logic of language pp 20-50 By Jeff Coulter, Boston University 4 - Epistemology: professional scepticism pp 51-76 By Wes Sharrock, University of Manchester, Bob Anderson, EuroPARC, Cambridge 5 - Method: measurement – ordinary and scientific measurement as ethnomethodological phenomena pp 77-108 By Mike Lynch, Boston University 6 - Method: evidence and inference – evidence and inference for ethnomethodology pp 109-136 7 - The social actor: social action in real time pp 137-175 By Wes Sharrock, University of Manchester, Graham Button, Polytechnic South West, Plymouth 8 - Cognition: cognition in an ethnomethodological mode pp 176-195 By Jeff Coulter, Boston University 9 - Language and culture: the linguistic analysis of culture pp 196-226 By John Lee, University of Manchester 10 - Values and moral judgement: communicative praxis as moral order pp 227-251 By Lena Jayyusi, Cedar Crest College, Pennsylvania References pp 252-270 Index pp 271-278