Ethnomethodology

Wes Sharrock has spent his entire career since 1965 in sociology until his retirement in 2017 at the University of Manchester. His main interests have been in the philosophy of social science and in ethnomethodology, and he has published widely on issues of sociological principle and empirical research in these areas.Wes has explored two central themes—the relevance of fieldwork and an understanding of ordinary language for an understanding of social practice and the respecification of social theory—pursuing them across a huge variety of settings, from ordinary scenes of everyday social life through to complex domains of practical action and reasoning in various academic and industrial work situations. An ethnomethodologist of international reputation, alongside his other contributions, Wes coedited with Mike Lynch the four-volume 2003 Sage collection Harold Garfinkel.

• Section 1: Background on Social Scientific and Everyday Methods The Definitions of Sociology and of Social Action - M. WeberSituated Actions and Vocabularies of Motive - C.W. MillsThe Problem of Rationality in the Social World - A. SchutzConcept and Theory Formation in the Social Sciences - A. SchutzThe Rational Properties of Scientific and Common Sense Activities - H. GarfinkelStudies in the Routine Grounds of Everyday Activities - H. GarfinkelPractical Sociological Reasoning: Doing accounts in ′common sense situations of choice′ - H. GarfinkelIntroduction - Harvey SacksSection 2: Ethnomethodology and the Practical Resolution of Methodological ProblemsHow to Determine Social Causes and Social Types - E. Durkheim, EOn the Interpretation of Weltanschauung - K. MannheimA Note on the Uses of Official Statistics - J. I. Kitsuse and A. V. CicourelThe Sociological Analysis of the Social Meanings of Suicide - Jack D. DouglasThe Search for Help: No one to turn to - H. SacksOn the Sociology of Suicide - J. Maxwell AtkinsonCommon Sense Knowledge of Social Structures: The documentary method of lay/professional fact finding - H. GarfinkelPolice Discretion in Emergency Apprehension of Mentally Ill Persons - E. BittnerThe Occurrence and Visibility of Deaths - D. SudnowRecord Keeping and the Intake Process in a Public Welfare Agency - D.H. ZimmermanRecord-Keeping Practices in the Policing of Juveniles - A.J. MeehanSection 3: Indexical Expressions - Topic, Resource or Nuisance?Indexical Expressions - Y. Bar HillelOn Formal Structures of Practical Actions - H. Garfinkel and H. SacksExplicative Transactions: Making and managing meaning in traffic court - M. PollnerOn meaning by Rule - D.L. WiederNotes on Methodology - H. SacksOn Some Questions and Ambiguities in Conversation - E.A. SchegloffWhose terms? Whose ordinariness? Rhetoric and Ideology in Conversation Analysis - M. Billig"Schegloff′s Texts" as Billig′s Data: A critical reply - E. SchegloffScientific and "Radical" Ethnomethodology from Incompatible Paradigms to Ethnomethodological Sociology - I. ArminenThe Ethnomethodological Foundations of Conversation Analysis - M. LynchWhere the Simplest Systematics Fits - W. SharrockResponse to Wes Sharrock - M. Lynch, MSection 4: Objectification in DiscourseOn Proverbs - H. SacksIssues in the Transcription of Naturally-Occurring Talk: Caricature versus capturing pronunciational particulars - G. JeffersonFeatures of Signs Encountered in Designing a Notational System for Transcribing Lectures - C. PackTextually Mediated Social Organization - D.E. SmithEthnomethodology and Literature: Preliminaries to a sociology of reading - A.W. McHoulTaking Account of the Hostile Native: Plausible deniability and the production of conventional history in the Iran-contra Hearings - D. Bogen and M. LynchThe interweaving of Talk and Text in a French Criminal Pre-Trial Hearing - E. Gonzalez-MartinezSection 5: Language, Categories and MembershipOn the Analyzability of Stories by Children - H. SacksA Tutorial on Membership Categorization - E.A. SchegloffDiscussion Note: Reading ′A tutorial on membership categorization′ - A. CarlinStudying the Organization of Action: Membership categorization and interaction analysis - G. PsathasMembership Categorization Analysis: An introduction - S. Hester and P. EglinHuman Practices and the Observability of the "Macro-Social" - J. CoulterCategorization, Authorization and Blame Negotiation in Conversation - D.R. WatsonSection 6: Studies of WorkEvidence for Locally Produced, Naturally Accountable Phenomena of Order, Logic, Reason, Meaning, Method, etc. in and as of the Essential Quiddity of Immortal Ordinary Society (I of IV): An announcement of studies - H. Garfinkel′Preface′ and ′Beginnings′ to Ways of the Hand - D. SudnowEthnomethodological Policies and Methods - Harold GarfinkelToward an Investigation of Primitive Epistopics - M. LynchThe Work of a Discovering Science Construed with Materials from the Optically Discovered Pulsar - H. Garfinkel, M. Lynch and E. LivingstonThe Work of a (Scientific) Demonstration: Respecifying Newton′s and Goethe′s theories of prismatic color - D. Bjelic and M. LynchThe Context of Proving - E. LivingstonDemonstrating ′′Reasonable Fear′′ at Trial: Is it science or junk science? - S. BurnsSection 7: Action as Algorithm - Computer Supported Cooperative WorkArtificial Intelligence as Craftwork - L.A. Suchman and R. TriggSociologists Can be Surprisingly Useful in Interactive Systems Design - I. Sommerville, T. Rodden, P. Sawyer and R. BentleyRepresentations and Requirements: The value of ethnography in system design - R.J. Anderson′Technomethodology′: Foundational relations between ethnomethodology and system design - G. Button and P. DourishDesigning with Ethnography: A presentation framework for design - J.A. Hughes, J. O′Brien, T. Rodden, M. Rouncefield and S. BlythinDesign in the Absence of Practice: Breaching experiments - A. CrabtreeEthnography Considered Harmful - A. Crabtree, T. Rodden, P. Tolmie and G. ButtonSection 8: Ethnomethodology and Social InstitutionsAgainst Our Will: Male interruptions of females in cross-sex conversation - C. WestBetween Micro and Macro: Contexts and other connections - E.A. SchegloffWhat Time is it, Denise?: Some observations on the organization and consequences of asking known information questions in classroom discourse - H. MehanThe Discovery of Situated Worlds: Analytic commitments, or moral orders? - D. MacbethInstructional Matter: Readable properties of an introductory text in matrix algebra - W. Sharrock and N. IkeyaConversation Analysis: A method for research into interactions between health care professionals and patients - P. Drew, J. Chatwin and S. CollinsProblems and Prospects in the Study of Physician-Patient Interaction - J. Heritage and D. MaynardCommunication Problems in the Intensive Care Unit - A.B. RobillardEthnomethodology, Conversation Analysis and the Study of Courtroom Behavior - A.M. Pomerantz and J.M. AtkinsonThe Social Construction of Unreality: A case study of a family′s attribution of competence to a severely retarded child - Melvin Pollner and L. McDonald-WiklerOn Understanding Without Words: Communication between a deaf-blind child and her parents - D.A. GoodeThe Veil of Objectivity: Prophecy, divination, and social inquiry - B. Jules-RosetteOn the Demise of the Native: Some observations and a proposal for ethnography - W.W. Sharrock and R.J. AndersonSociologists on trial: theoretical competition and juror reasoning. The American Sociologist 32: 42-69. - M. Peyrot and S. BurnsSection 9: Language, Interaction, Embodied ConductRestarts, Pauses, and the Achievement of a State of Mutual Gaze at Turn-Beginning - C. GoodwinHow to do Things with Things - J. StreekWhat to Learn: The embodied structure of the environment - A. NishizakaGlances, Trances, and Their Relevance for a Visual Sociology - D. MacbethThe Analysis of Activities in Face to Face Interaction Using Video - C.C. HeathVideo Recording Practices and the Reflexive Constitution of the Interactional Order: Some systematic uses of the split-screen technique - L. Mondada