Studies in Ethnomethodology Harold Garfinkel

“The studies in this volume were written over the last twelve years. I regret a certain unity in the collection that was obtained by pondering and rearranging texts. I am saddened by that practice for in the way it assures to the collected articles an overall “good sense” it will certainly have sacrificed news. The articles originated from my studies of the writings of Talcott Parsons, Alfred Schutz, Aron Gurwitsch, and Edmund Husserl. For twenty years their writings have provided me with inexhaustible directives into the world of everyday activities. Parsons’ work, particularly, remains awesome for the penetrating depth and unfailing precision of its practical sociological reasoning on the constituent tasks of the problem of social order and its solutions”.

Preface, Harold Garfinkel

“Ethnomethodology, the study of the ways in which ordinary people construct a stable social world through everyday utterances and actions, is now a major component of all sociology and linguistics courses. Garfinkel’s formidable reputation as one of the worlds leading sociologists rest largely on the work contained in this book” (Wiley).