Ethnomethodology's Program Author(s): Harold Garfinkel Reviewed work(s): Source: Social Psychology Quarterly, Vol. 59, No. 1 (Mar.

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Quarterly Social Psychology 1996, Vol. 59 No. 1, 5-21

Program* Ethnomethodology's
Los Angeles University of California,

HAROLD GARFINKEL

esteemedcolleague, and rare friend.She my teacher, and took sustained our discussions through the writing forpublication. thetimeto carefully editthismanuscript up an interest Becauseofmany peoplewhohavetaken it is impossible in ethnomethodology that one description will encompassthe vast arrayof studiesgoingby that name. However, I hope that there is room in this which discussion forthosestudies taketheimportance of phenomenal fieldsof detail seriwitnessable recurrent other respects issue, in whatever ouslyand as a primary we maydiffer.

for unanimously thearmies of socialanalysts, in endless analytic arts and sciences of 1.1 What Is Ethnomethodology? practicalaction,formalanalytic procedures thestatus to me assuregood workand are accorded getsreintroduced Ethnomethodology of work. FA's achievements are well good episodeat theannualmeetings in a recurrent to dispute.FA technolof the AmericanSociological Association. knownand pointless in targetuniversal jurisdiction The doorsopen. ogy exercises fortheelevator. I'm waiting for of ing phenomena analysis. Phenomena "Oh, Hi Hal!" "Hi." I walk in. THE in order are made observable instructably QUESTION is asked: "Hey, Hal, what IS recuranalytic detailsof concertedly The elevator doors formal ethnomethodology?" of practical action.These floor. rentachievements close. We're on our way to the ninth range from the of war to thetransient conduct is I'm onlyable to say, "Ethnomethodology an is Pheinvitation refused. pause before probworking out some verypreposterous nomena made instructably observable in doorsopen. lems." The elevator recurdetailsof concertedly analytic to me that formal On thewayto myroomitoccurs rent achievements of are so practical actions is I shouldhave said thatethnomethodology a provided for by FA that phenomenon, Durkheim's orlived immortal, respecifying and whatever the phenomenon its evidently, doingso by work- whatever dinary society, is made observable as the scale, instructably of preposterous problems. ingout a schedule thatstaffs its producThe problemshave their sources in the workof a population They tion. Populations are usually treated as worldwidesocial science movement. countsof bodies. The proare motivated movement's ubiquitous straightforward by that is it is theworkings here instead that of posal of to thepoliciesand methods commitments thephenomenon thatexhibit amongits other formal analysisand generalrepresentational and by itsunquestionable achieve- details the populationthat staffsit.1 This theorizing is exhibited in surveyable population particuments. and its lars of body counts and dimensionalized (FA) technology FormalAnalytic These are elucidated with worldwide.Almost demographics. resultsare understood variableanalysis,quantified arguments, and causal structures. Such analytic descriptions * Acknowledgements: There are manypeople whose are available in all administered societies, not contribution to thisworkneed to be acknowledged, and historical. and colleagues whose eth- contemporary least those many students That these achievements are unquestionhaveprovided thecatalogue of studies nomethodological which theoriginal able is assured discussed here,without investigations, bybeingsubordinated to FA's unfulfilled. premier of "Studies" would have remained promise thecorpusstatus achievement, of its is after all, and necessarily,an Ethnomethodology bibliographies. By corpus I mean (1) its I thankalso Doug unrelievedly empiricalenterprise. always accompanied by textheir andLucySuchman for steadfast friendship investigations, Maynard make and fortheirgenerosity withtheir hard tual accountsthat describe,specify, timeand their in shoptalk. wonknowledge I am deeplyin debtto Anne instructably observable, satisfy, and are Rawls. Years ago shewas briefly Now sheis exhibits of adequate grounds of further mystudent.
ETHNOMETHODOLOGY'S PROGRAM
' It is the workings of the traffic thatmake its staff availableas "typical"drivers, "bad" drivers, "close in" drivers and anything else thedemographers needto have a causal accountof the driving. to administer Endogenous populations are a topicof recurring ethnomethodYou don't startwith bodies. The ological interest. Conversational Analysisof talkprovides another examwhich with conversation exhibits itsspeakers ple. It starts as typical recurring, doingitagainin thesameway,staff.

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY QUARTERLY

inference and action. (2) These are adequa- specify practitioners' work and make it cies of an investigation's origins andproblem instructably observable. specification, and of the problem'sessential "What More" has centrally (and perhaps to do withprocedures. history, descriptive coverage,facticity, I have given rele- entirely) vance, and, as contingencies in an actual procedural EM's emphasis on work. By occasionofinquiry mayhaverequired, anyof procedural, EM does not mean process. the rest.(3) The adequaciesare instructablyProceduralmeans labor. That emphasisis in theprobative descriptions by reproducible. (4) The foregoing are satisfied exemplified in actualworksite achievements. (5) Investi- David Sudnow. At the worksite-playing improvised jazz at the piano keygations at all levels of findings in these hearably watchably thoughtful wordsat respects can be taken on these grounds board;typing keyboard; enactedly solving the seriouslyto define a current situationof thetypewriter problem, atthecomputer console,ofgetting a inquiry. high score in "Breakout," the video gameEthnomethodology (EM) is proposing and and developingly comingupon working out "What More" thereis to the progressively via thework in and as ofthe unquestionable ana- thephenomenon corpusstatusof formal detailsof producing it (Sudnow, lytic than formal investigations analysis does, unmediated 1978, 1979, 1983, 1996). did, ever did, or can provide.EM does not obsessionin ethnomethodologWithout disputethoseachievements. disput- The central is toprovide forwhat thealternate as unquestionablyical studies ing those achievements procedural descriptions of achieved and EM asks "What demonstrable achievements2 phenomena of order-methodoloMore" is there thatusersof formal analysis achievable gies-could be without issues of sacrificing knowand demandtheexistence of, thatFA Thatmeanswithout the sacrificing depends upon the existence of for FA's structure. great achievements-of describable recognizin carefully achievements worksite-specific of generality, and of instructed procedures,that FA uses and able recurrencies, of these comparability of productions ordiin and as its lived recognizeseverywhere nary activities -activities that with them carry worksite-specific practices. achievements of populations There are practicesthatFA practitionerstherecognizable that stafftheirproduction, with the along justin anyactualcase knowandrecognize are and surveyability of those interchangeability without or alternatives. unavoidable, remedy This is not an indifference populations. to are indispensable The practices to practitionstructure. This is a concern withstructure as ers. Justas in any actualcase the practices an achieved of order. phenomenon EM is concerned with"WhatMore," in the 2 does ordinary activities, If this claim is read as irony,it will be read world of familiar, ordinary societyconsistof as the To read it without recallthescene in immortal, incorrectly. irony, lonesco's Rhinoceros. The last man and his girlfriend, locus and thesetting of everytopicof order, below filledwith every Daisy, are lookingout intothe street of method topicof logic, of meaning, dancrhinoceroses. Daisy exclaims,"Oh look, they're respecified and respecifiable as the most ing." The last man: "You call thatdancing!" Daisy: Durkheimian in theworld. ordinary things "That's theway they dance." fundamental Ethnomethodology's phenomno disrespect is involved forFA's demand Similarly, workof finding that itsinvestigations be worldly outand enonand itsstanding technical preoccupation real order,evidently; real order,not cocka- in its studies specifying is to find,collect,specify, and mamie real order. Real order is FA's achievement, observable thelocal endogEM is notclaiming to know without better. But makeinstructably question. enous production and naturalaccountability is EM proposing and carry neither to institute out EM of ordinary investigations familiar societywhile being in the of immortal society'smostordinary midst of organizational thingsand thereinknowing organizational thingsin the world, and to we'll proceedwithout to decide nothing. Rather, having provide bothand simultaneously for them as or evento knowhow to proceed whileknowing nothing. and as objects alternate methprocedurally, our Instead, by [beginning], by [carrying on], by [finding an investigation] we'll odologies. bearings again], by [completing in the midstof things. land ourselves we Procedurally The identity of objectsand methodologies know something. We're not agnostic.EM's commit- is key. These methodologies are incarnate in ments are thesameas thoseof FA in worldwide analytic familiar Therein are society. they uniquely actionand practical reason:In the studiesof practical to thephenomena whoseproduction we'll studythe workas of adequate midstof its endlessthings whichimmortal consists. We'll see. in material theydescribesubstantively, deordinary society

ETHNOMETHODOLOGY'S PROGRAM

In A Catalog Statement, briefly and annotated themes are arranged in several topics, in variousdocuments, 1.2 There Is Orderin thePlenum of ethnomethodological collections Forinvestigations. matted as a directed review andunderstood as stepsofan social science argument, According to theworldwide in several theseinvestigations, make volumes, movementand the corpus status of its up theEM Catalog. 5 I use generality as synecdoche forvarious features of there is no order in the bibliographies, lived phenomenathat formal analysis collects and concreteness of things 1988). The describesas structures. (Garfinkel, are extensively Structures disresearchenterprises of the social scientific cussed in Seven Cases WithWhichto SpecifyHow movement are defeatedby the apparently Phenomenal Fields of Ordinary Activities Are Lost With Details of Recording Machinery: Rhythmic overwhelming de- Engineering hopelesslycircumstantial Turnsat Talk, Phones,Counting tails of everyday activities-the plenum, the Clapping,Summoning Scrubbingthe Sink and Other Trivial, Unavoidably JobsAround theHouse, Traffic Sight-Specific Ordinary 3 The unique -adequacy requirement of methodsis Flow, Service Lines,and Computer Real Time Supported in Garfinkel explained briefly andWieder,1992. Occupations.

theplenilunium. To geta remedy, the tails. The competenceof theirproduction plenty, outpoliciesand staffsconsists of the unique adequacy of social scienceshave worked of formal analysis.These respecify of their production methods The competence methods. detailsof ordinary activities as with,the the concrete staffs is, it existsas, it is identical detailsof the analyzing devices and of the unique adequacy of methods.3 as empiri- methods that warrant theuse ofthese EM addressestheseprovisions devices. thesheercircumstantiality of It carriesthem Theyrespecify cally adequate descriptions. out by eschewingthe methodsof formal ordinaryactivitiesso that order can be loss or sacrifice exhibitedanalytically. It is essentiallyan Thisis donewithout analysis. The detailsfound bowdleriz- empirical demonstration. in and without of issuesof structure, or changing the model reveal the essential recurring issuesofstructure ingor ignoring invariant features which areFA's phenomena. thesubject. or A Catalog ofEthnomethodological Investiissues of structure Without sacrificing consists of evidenceto thecontrary. changingthe subject?That means without gations4 in Indeed, thereis orderin the mostordinary the ubiquitousachievements, sacrificing and account- activities of everydaylife in their full life, of recognizable everyday and thatmeansin their of practical concreteness, ongoable, observable recurrencies in achievedly ingly procedurallyenacted coherence of actionsand practical reasoning ordered details withphenomenal adequatedetails substantive, ordered, uniquely coherent, It has to do withthe of classifica- out loss of generality.5 of comparability, of generality, of detailsin structures, of standard- unexplicated specifics of uniformity, tion,of typicality, in typicality, in productions in recurrencies, not the details ization.These arerecurrencies a generic activities- gotten by administering of the phenomena of ordinary description. trafficjams, service lines, summoning These detailsare unmediatedly experienced notes,jazz piano in a and experienced phones, blackboard evidently. in lecture Just-in-any-actual-case cocktaillounge,talking chemistry immortal ordinary thatexhibit, beast. Evidently along with societyis a wonderful and format-phenomena accountable details, just in anyactualcase, God knowshow it is endogenously their other the endogenouslyaccountablepopulations put together. The principal formalanalytic in hand,of payingcareful devicescurrently that staff their production. Whatin the worlddo theseachievements attention to theuse, thedesign,and adminisconsist of? Where in the world are they trationof generic representational theorizfound?How in the world are theyfound? ing-models,for example, geta job donethat What in the worldof commonplace, local, with thesametechnical skillsin administering endogenoushaecceitiesof daily life does them lose the very phenomenon that they ordinary societyconsistof as the profess. immortal, of everytopicof order, locus and thesetting of logic, of meaning,of method,reason, 4 A Catalog of EM Investigations with Which to Topics of Logic, Order,Meaning,Method, science, truth,respecifiedand Respecify rationality, Reason,Structure, Science,and theRest,In, About, and concerted As as the mostordinary respecifiable the Workings of Immortal, Justin Ordinary Society in Any Actual Case. WhatDid We Do? WhatDid We enactedphenomena lived organizationally theworld? Learn?

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY QUARTERLY

thesebeing the careful enterprises, Enacted specificallyordinaryorganiza- analytic the will permit that of description tional phenomenain orderedphenomenal enterprises ofordinary status ofthecorpus are strange. demonstration evidently details of structures become to do that,analysts actions;in order is strange. society ordinary Immortal, of signs. Following through what'sso strange? interpreters In particulars, Strange? it is then with this procedure, is alreadywell knownand consistently What is strange That is unavoidable. interpretation that argued available. "marks,indicasociety designingand interpreting ordinary Considerthat immortal what just in any actual case, is easily tors,signs,and symbols"is inevitably evidently, mustdo in and social scientists done and easily recognizedwith uniquely sociologists out the corpusstatusof their by orderto carry competence, vulgar adequatecompetence, activities. of ordinary byone andall it studies all that, one andall-and, for hardto describeprocedurally. EM is not in the businessof interpreting is intractably enterprise. described,just in any actual signs. It is not an interpretive Procedurally are not textswhich case, it is elusive. Further,it is only Enactedlocal practices Theyare in or events. "meanings" It cannot symbolize It is not imaginable. discoverable. foundout, detail identical with themselves,and not but is only actually be imagined else. The witof something and just in any actual case.6 The way it is representative everyrecurrent detailsof ordinary it can consist of and nessably done is everything theirown reality. cannot capture this day practicesconstitute imagined descriptions unmediated details detail. Justin any actual case it is both They are studiedin their whenit comes and notas signedenterprises. done and intractable vulgarly in its Is it then that ethnomethodology Absentthat,and to makingit instructable. Moreto the concernswith "What More" is criticalof howitis puttogether. God knows Is it that In God's silence, formal formal analytic investigations? point of strange: is one morein a familiar of the ethnomethodology the privileges by exercising analysts, critics, analyst and the universal line of academicsociology'sin-house transcendental to fishtherein? thebetter thewaters they stirring do notknow;yetstillsomehow observer, ofethnomethodologTherehavebeenauthors to say. neednothesitate knowthey werepromoted whosereputations ordi- ical studies More on "strange."How immortal, of theworldwide to themembers includes the by offering nary society is put together ways of upgrading of paying social sciencemovement analysts workby formal incarnate to thedesignandadministra- theircraft."Your science is cockeyed.We attention careful It need to sit down and diagnoseforyou just theorizing. representational tionof generic you'regoingwrong."Ethnomethodoldetail where workis an enacted that is no newsthat repairsto societyit learnsabout and ogy has yet to deliverpromised of the immortal enterprises the formalanalyticsocial scientific teaches.In the social sciencemovement losingitsown phenomena. analysisget done with without jobs of descriptive of formal is notcritical Ethnomethodology The skills with which generictheorizing. is it the But neither investigations. accompa- analytic these jobs are doneare everywhere A means and of that Catalog that case EM, well are These incongruities. niedby curious has no concernwith a they EM Investigations, acknowledged, known,and even freely andhas nothing to promise expertise skillsof remedial with thesameprocedural that include is applied so or deliver. Ethnomethodology they jobs thephenomena outthese carrying However, its remedial ethnomethodology. are lost. describe carefully to EM expertise. are distinctive represen- transactions of generic theprocedure Further, for phenomena is offered That expertise putsin placeoftheenacted theorizing tational is trouproduction soci- whose local, endogenous ordinary detailof immortal witnessable detailsof strucphenomenal of signs.The FA procedure bled in ordered etya collection a remedial EM does notoffer expertise and tures. directly unmediated, theenacted, ignores In to thesephenomena. is transcendental detailsof immortal that witnessable immediately EM's remedial of experthese the generality have only analysts society.Then, ordinary to (independent of) theuse their tiseis indifferent one option,in orderto carrythrough theorizofpoliciesofgeneric representational 6 of constructive analysisto For a deep explication of that claim see Schegloff, ing and methods of remedial expertise. thegenerality specify 1987.

ETHNOMETHODOLOGY'S PROGRAM

in 3.1 the Praxeological further Validityof Instructed Action. 8 The followingis an explicating phrase for the of instructed "praxeological validity action": at and as a description theworksite as instructably misreading the workof following whichexhibits the phenomenon that thetext describes.

are observable, of new organizational Havingbeen found a territory out,EM's findings withthe questions"What did we phenomena.These consist of the paired described do? Whatdid we learn?More to the point, achievements: 1) topicalliteratures of formal whatdid we learn,but only in and as lived analytic investigations andtheorizing, accomdoings,thatwe can teach?And how can we paniedby 2) their alterethnomethodological are tutorial empirical teach it?" EM's findings specifics are prob- nates.The collection's lems.Theyare notdifferent than pedagogies. the work of an international companyof They were learned in settingsin which authors of books, articles, dissertations, and learning papers, and occateaching beingdone in concert master'sessays, seminar withotherswere locally and endogenously sionalnotes. In the pairs thatcompose the collection, to theparties." witnessable by and "relevant un- EM alternates In these respectstheywere essentially to FA literatures are alternates, avoidableand without not alternatives. Case by case they are remedy. ThatEM's findings are pedagogies has an specific alternates. Members of a pair make studies demonstrably obviousfocusin ethnomethodological disjunct provisions for the are corpusstatus of theordinary of work and occupations.Its findings thata activities found there in the phenomena of two pairdescribes. The EM alternates are incomof the Shop Floor Problem:(1) mensurable,asymmetrically constituents alternatepheand their of order. shop floorachievements accompa- nomena and (2) shop The achievements nyingcareful*7 theodescriptions, of formal analytic floortheorizing. andinvestigations arealwaysaccompaThey are foundtherealso, rizing andeverywhere else, in careful* and descriptions; nied by ethnomethodological alternates, in the praxeologicalvalidityof instructedtheyare accompanied everywhere. Wherever actions;8and in one of EM's distinctive in an actual investigation one is found,the results and its central phenomenon: The other is also found.Wherever theground is of instructed actionis analytically trampled, its specific ethpraxeological validity (i.e., "existsas," "is identical with,""is the nomethodological alternate is findable.The sameas") thephenomenon. Theseresults are moreheavilytheground has been trampled, collected in EM studies of work in the and wherever it has been trampled for the and sciences. professions longest will its EM time,themorecertainly Flatly,none of EM's questionsare con- alternate be findable. When it is found,the whois aheadin a contest cerned with between more curiousis its priorabsence in mainrivalclaimsto adequatesciencein thesocial stream foritsabsenceis a positive literatures, sciences.Instead,and just as flatly, thetwo phenomenonand an accomplishment of disciplines, FA and EM, are both and immortal ordinary societynot less thanare simultaneously differentthosedescribed incommensurably by FA investigations.9 and unavoidably In order related.What do the two to describe FA literatures andtheir haveto do with each other? This EM alternates I have appropriated technologies the term is EM's prevailing question. This question is coeval:10whereone arises, the otherarises thecenter of EM's bibliographies. and with it. Coeval brings alongside to center stage and underlinesethnomethodology's premier Whatdo FA literatures questions: and 1.3 FormalAnalytic Literatures and Their theirEM alternates consistof in any actual EM Alternates case? Justin any actual case? Whatdo they as the worksite, A collectionof EM investigations estab- consistof at the worksite, first time through? lishes and specifies, by makinginstructably FA investigations and EM studies are both and differsimultaneously incommensurably 7 Careful, refers to descripspelled withan asterisk ent and related. EM specifically knows thisto tionsthatare availableat theworksite to misreading as be and so, via empirically the demonstrably, thefirst an of instructed segment action. Thisis explained
9 In an aspectof their curious absence,EM alternates areburied by theworkof mainstreaming them. Like any otherprocedurally specifiedphenomena of order the workof mainstreaming is done in detailsof structures. 10 Maynard andClayman (1991) first usedthisterm to describe thealternates.

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as of their organizational thing doing,as of theirown " By way of a reminder, in ethnomethodologydoing,but not of theirveryown, singular, distinctive And further, forjust thiscohort, it will be incarnate methodo- authorship. meanslaborof a certain procedural and develop- thatafter otherswill come after progressively logical sort:at the worksite theyexit the freeway via theworkin and them to do againthesamefamiliar that coming uponthephenomenon ingly things they-just and directly observed they-justtheseof us as drivings immediately as of theunmediated, doingsare in concert it. detailsof producing doing. phenomenal-field of Immortal is used to speakof human Louis Borgestalksabouta "The Library jobs as of which t2 Jorge school thatit is a free local members, being in the midstof organizational Babel." We learnedin graduate are You pickup whatever you need. things, know,ofjusttheseorganizational of theories. things they democracy 13 The EM Catalogdescribes in in themidstof, thatit preceded themand will be there relations thisandother and after they leave. It is a metaphorfor the great See Garfinkel theorems." a collection of "rendering recurrencies of ordinary society, staffed, provided for, Weider(1992).

Catalog of EM Investigations.EM knows this alternate; theyare asymmetrically alternate, ways thatFA does not have and thattheyare asymmetrically in instructable relatedis access to and thatit CAN not get itself a social fact. empirical In the contemporary task of worldwide social access to. EM has the unavoidable explainingthese claims and demonstrating sciencemovement, "The objective reality of and EM alternates social facts is sociology's them.Do FA literatures fundamental princiThenhowdo ple" is understood related? Arethey arisetogether? procedurally, although not related? How are they as procedurally is understood in etharisetogether? they In thecountless analytic Justwhat do theyhave to do witheach nomethodology. arts theory writing and sciences of practical action of the other? But notas thought-full writer, notbeingrequired worldwide social science movement,the a theory with which by aphorism handor to be constrained in substantially to knowat first explicateddetails of and is demonstrated in thecorpus just what in its procedurally" ordered consists carriedout withthe phenomenaldetails he is talking about statusof investigations can have it in the way he can policies, methods,and results of formal empirically, technology. Therein, too, the aphoimagineand howeverit is neededto do his analytic state rism is variouslyunderstood accordingto doingwithan imagined FA theorizing; is neededto carry offan need and occasionas FA's aim, tasks,work, whatever of affairs demands,achievement, and funthat is available in a Borgesian procedural argument adds damental of theories to choose whatever phenomenon. library12 EM also accords the aphorismheavy to a literature of topicalcontroversies. is taught to graduate proceduralemphasis, but distinctively Durkheim's so. aphorism work: Ethnomethodologically the aphorism is unfrom thefirst day of graduate students "The objective reality of social facts is derstoodlike this. From the outsetof its EM addressed The aph- investigations, various fundamental settings principle." sociology's inboth whoseparticuprograms of immortal14 orism is taken seriously ordinary society very of and by bothtechnologies of investigations 14 analysis, FA and EM. Their takes are is borrowed Immortal from Durkheim as a metaphor differ- foranywitnessable local setting are doing whoseparties different; theyare incommensurably a hallway job thatcan rangein scale from re- somehuman ent. Nevertheless they are inextricably to a freeway traffic greeting jam wherethereis thisto lated. For one thing-one organizational emphasize about them:Their production is staffed by and a social factin itsownright-they parties thing, to a standing crapgame. Of coursethejobs are alternate.13 are asymmetrically not games, let alone a crap game. Thinkof freeway flow in Los Angeles. For the cohortof drivers Thatmeansthat you can use ethnomethod-traffic makingtraffic ology to recover in phenomenalordered there,just this gang of them,driving, are somehow,smoothly and unremarkably, field of ordered together, details-in a phenomenal thedriving to be at thelivedproduction ofthe concerting details the work that makes up, at the flow'sjust thisness: familiar, ordinary, uninterestingly, in andas observances doableand doneagain, and observably worksite,the design, administration, in detailforeverything that withtheuse of and always,only,entirely offof investigations carrying be. In and as of the just thisness(the You can't do it the detail could formal analytic practices. of driving's are doing haecceities) details, just thisstaff other way around.That is to say, you can't againjust whatin concert withvulgarcompetence they to recover can do, foreach another of formal analysis use themethods nextfirst time;and it is thisof aredoing,that makesup thedetails ofjustthat thatethnomethod-whatthey theworkand thefindings it is of their flow:Thatalthough doing,and as of takeson traffic ology is comingup with.So their theflowthey are oriented by" and "seeably Durkheim'saphorismindeed are not only directed to the"witnessably productionof it," they treat the

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11

enswelt or thematters debated by Schutzand Gurwitsch, of theory such as Parsons,Coleman, beyondwriters and observable, produced, observed locallyand account- Foucault,or Merleau-Ponty. Possiblyand mostpromisEM ingly morethan ably in and as of an "assemblage of haeccieities." anyof these, tookitbeyond Durkheim's places heavyemphasis on "immortal." It is a recurrent socio-empirical thathas been elucidated epistemology in theEM catalogand a sourceof itstopics. theme recently by AnneRawls (1996). 19 My allusion '5 Various tutorialproblems in the EM Catalog has itssourcein AnneRawls's (1995) empirically respecify severalmeanings of standard time startling article "Durkheim'sEpistemology: The Neandvarious established literary meanings. In itsconcerns glected Argument." RawlsshowsDurkheim tohavebeen with time,Sudnow'sworkis particularly rich. the originalauthorof that understanding and of its 16 Order* is a proxyforany research spelledwithan asterisk program. She showsin thedetailed texts of The and all topicsof logic,meaning, ... reason,method Formsof the ReligiousLife, as the book's Elementarwy t7 I understand thisrestatement of Durkheim's apho- principal project, that thiswas Durkheim's program; that rism to be EM's center. I understand thisrestatement and thebook's argument continues theprogram ofhiscorpus; teachit as EM's distinctive and central statement of its thathe namedsociologyas the program's disciplinary aims, tasks, program, policies, methods, results,and source;and thatproject and legacyhave been neglected It has been a recurrent teachings. themein my courses by almost80 yearsof Durkheimian scholarship.

as to EM tookit'8that theworkings lar staffs so concerted theiractivities of immortal, society are the origins,sources, exhibittopics of order*as theiractivities' ordinary in and as real destinations, of achieved locus, and settings of order* achieved phenomena in real time,15and therein as phenomena of order*. worldsettings, Provisions forachieveof order, the most ordinary achieved organizational ments whether theseprovisions are or technical, in the world. Any and all topics of vernacular lay or professional, things 16 were taken to be eligible for begin, have their order* course, and finishin the of theseordinary ethnomethodological respecification as midst workings. oforder*, commonplace EM takesit thatimmortal achieved phenomena ordinary society seen but unnoticed, specifi- exists as, consists of, is identical with achievements, and specificallyunre- achieved phenomena of logic, meaning, cally uninteresting, method,reason, rationalaction,truth, markable "workof thestreets." eviaboutEM studies dence, science, Kant's basic categories, It is ethnomethodological or soci- Hume's, or the primordials of anyoneelse, thattheyshow for immortal ordinary contents anyof whichis a lot of territory eventsin material inasmuch as ety's substantive andjust GeneralIdeas of theUniversal Observer are just and onlyin anyactualcase, that used in the social sciences and how vulgarlycompetent membersconcert commonly to topicalize and justifyvalid theiractivitiesto produce and display,to humanities the case, knowledgeof every possible thingin any to make observably demonstrate, 19 of possibleworld. accountable locally,naturally phenomena "The objective realaphorism logic and order, of cause, classification, Durkheim's temporality, coherence, consistency,and ityof social factsis sociology'sfundamental in theinvestigations in structures, of principle" is specified ofdetails, of details of analysis, coinci- the EM catalog. In the Catalog's investigaaccidents, meaning, mistakes, errors, in tions,theobjective andmethods dence,facticity, reason, truth, of thesocial facts reality and as of the unremarkable embodiedly is madeinstructably observable and instructain and as themostordinary lives to- bly reproducible ordereddetails of theirordinary and familiarorganizational gether. things in the or world. Fromtimeto time,in one publication The different takes on Durkheim's their relevance forsociologywould aphoanother, be summarized with a restatement of Durkhe- rismby theformal artsand sciences analytic im's aphorism.For its investigations, eth- of the worldwide social science movement nomethodology tookthisto meantheobjectivereality ofsocialfacts, in that andjusthow at UCLA since 1954 and in conferences at pro- and seminars every society's locally, endogenously variousuniversities. It is theexplicit subjectof various account- publications(e.g., Garfinkel,1988; Garfinkeland duced,naturally organized, naturally achievement, being Weider 1992, Chapter10). It is explicitly able, ongoing,practical thematic in for whichI was chairat UCLA and UC everywhere, always, only, exactlyand en- dissertations tirely members' work,withno timeout,and Irvine,or on whichI servedthereor elsewhere.It is specifiedin themes and topics throughout the EM with no possibility of evasion, hidingout, Catalog of Investigations. is thereby t8 Took it, that is, beyond hermeneutics, passing, postponement, orbuyouts, beyond sociology'sfundamental phenomenon.17 interpretive sociology,certainly beyondHusserl'sLeb-

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and ethnomethodology are incommensurably wouldn't wantonlyto stipulate or imagine it. theyare inextrica- New directions different but nevertheless would have already been in case themembers of a pair taken, blyrelated. Just so whywouldone want to?Andso on, theypresent to and so forth. are comparedprocedurally, The phenome- VariousEM authors EM a preposterous problem: have described worknon of interest to EM is not thatthe FA site-specific, discipline-specific, procedural EM alternates makeup a enactments literatures and their of the "etcetera" clause, the collection and its properties. The phenome- documentary method of interpretation, indexof ical expressions non of interest is this:The phenomenon and their essentialubiquity, problem: namely, reflexivebody/world interest is thepreposterous relations,details in and structures, case by case, foreach pair,theliterature tacit knowledge, the essential The phenomenon of interest is mundaneity its alternate: of reasonand calculative rationthe disjunctcorpus statusof its respective ality,and oracular reasoning and its endless This is an initial preposterous cognates.These subjectshad theirstartin bibliographies. Further problems flow 1952 after problem. preposterous I learned abouttheworkof Calvin that.Case by case, theLITALT20pairs Mooers. Graduatestudieswith the use of from are preposterous problems. Mooers' "Zatocoding"and "Catalog" began at UCLA in 1954. They were developedin at UCLA, and later by 2.1 A Collection and Their PhD dissertations ofFA Literatures and students at other faculty universities: UC EM Alternates2 Santa Barbara, Irvine, San Diego, York, EM alternates are specific alternates to the OntarioInstitute for Studies in Education, FA literatures with which theyare paired. Manchester, Boston, and elsewhere.They alternate provisions remain Theyare demonstrably21 forEM authors. standing subjects forthecorpusstatus of theordinary activities Another is familiar andprevalent in subject describes. This claimis formal thatan FA literature literatures: the accomplished analytic is transparency critical to the collection. A literature and specifically unremarkable readfor studies smoothness familiarly probative ordinarily of concerted skillsof "equipmenare read for tally affiliated"shopwork and shoptalk. of its subjects.Whenits studies in studies These are respecified thereading is apttobe looking that, ethnomethodologically at hand to a well-known past (the reader's with "Heideggerianuses" of handicaps, and deepen- illnesses, collecting, included), reviewing, andtheir affiliated disability, equipa tradition, mental"aids to independent ingestablished studies, promoting living,"as well itbysingling outa lineof studies to as with inverting renewing lenses and otherbodily, look like, and characterological, findwhatnextin line might and proceorganizational, a next to thelineas dural"troublemakers." so attaching study perhaps Withthese"troublewas usedto find makers,"work's incarnate thestructure that to continue social organizawhat"next"couldbe and shouldbe. tional details are revealed by overcoming dif- their The EM readingis incommensurably in their transparency topically ordinary in material detailsin thatinsteadof concerted ferent recurrencies of ongoingly developa ing phenomenal itdeliberately searches a tradition, renewing fieldsof ordered detailsof EM's generality, for news to carryfurther literature uniformity, interchangeable popuandestablished markers lations,and therest-i.e., in ordered uncovered previously details in of structures. ofstrangely neworganizational phenomena remains FA's familiar Studies of many and various subjects what nevertheless is for"WhatMore" concernedwith the workings The EM search territory. of organizato describe tional theterritory offers up in language with orwithout their things, availability ownsubject; offers itas a literature's up, in FA literatures, very weredonewhileeschewing but thepoliciesand methods notin theineffable seeingof something, of formal analysis. with a language that is itselfpart of the Each investigation, for its empiricaladecan't be quacy,described but that in its matters territory, that arerecognized practices The EM by practitioners but is only discoverable. imagined as doable,done, true,"relereader, having caught on to something, vantto theparties,"22 and evenversimilitudi20 21

LITALT = FA literatures and theirEM alternates. observable. By demonstrableI mean instructably

22

Credit is long overdue for Florian Znaniecki's

ETHNOMETHODOLOGY'S PROGRAM

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of medicalresearch, nous .23 EM studies deliberately abstained program and pedagogy, from theuse of mental mechanisms, psychol- evaluationin the Pediatrics of Department StateUniversity from clinicalpsychological 1973-1984. ogizedactions, biogra- Michigan phies, signed objects, and hermeneutics. Theirprogram was notable forworking out withpractices thatare and demonstrating the conditionof EM They are concerned to theenvi- adequacy: that the analyst's ethnomethodchained chiasmically embodiedly ronment of ongoingly orderedphenomenal ologicalfindings be taken in theFA seriously details.Descriptively provided for,theseare discipline thatwas studied.By being"taken above all commonplace, notablyunremark-seriously" I mean that at the worksite, willdemand ofEM findings able, in specificsthatare uninteresting but practitioners just and somehow -and this is as theydemand of FA findingsthat they indispensable, of interest-they are specifically satisfy the worksite-specific, critically disciplinein established unmentioned specificcorpusstatusof FA investigations, descriptions. in FA be incorporated A very strongcollectionof studieswas and thatEM findings done with deliberate,clear, and targeted work at hand or reasonsbe given for not on ethnomethodological emphasis discipline- doingso. specific "hybrid" results. By "hybrid" I is of workin whichtheanalyst meanstudies 2.2 A Collection ofPairs to prouniquelyand adequatelycompetent is a listof FA/EMpairsthat thecoherent duce thephenomenon, uniquely The following oftopical details of which his descriptions can consist literatures offormal adequate analytic as and at a studies of work and their specific EM be misread instructionally, to exhibit.24 list of briefly worksite, AmongEM hybrids, alternates.An enumerated David Sudnow's studies, particularly of annotated subjectsof formal literaanalytic injazz pianoplaying andpiano tures<light text> and theirethnomethodimprovisation studies ologicalalternates pedagogy, are sine qua non. Hybrid [bold text]follows. <1> The premierachievement also come intostrong focusin EM studies of of FA workin thenatural sciences.25 studies discovering of workis thegenerality of workand Their studiesestablished, among analyti- occupations, not in occupations'aesthetics of instructed literatures callyfamiliar actions, but as labor describedin theirgenerically EM alternate, their "thepraxeological valid- represented detailsof structure: e.g., in their action." At and as the details of generalityand comparability, ity of instructed a descriptive worksite, misreading account staffedby interchangeable and surveyable instructionally, the workof following which populations, thedescriptions beingresponsive exhibitsthe phenomenon thatthe text de- across occupations,disciplines,and literascribes.The alternate was original with,first turesto inductive inference without incoherand elaborately proposed, developed by Britt ence, etc. These are demonstrated with and Christopher Robillard Pack in their joint studies that arecarried outwith thepoliciesof and methgeneric representational theorizing ods of constructive themost analysis. Among (1937) Social Actions forearlyand deep explication of of these are the well-known and I thank thisinsistence. JamesFleming, and powerful my mentor of the in theSociologyDepartment friend of theUniversity of widely practicedanalyticprivileges North Carolina,forinsistently it in 1939 as an transcendental teaching anduniversal observer. analyst acknowledged andcentral relevance in discipline-specific Theirevident use provides to FA cases that literatures of social science theorizing.Sacks and and it as a centralmethodological describeachieved details of generality Schegloff incorporated of work and occupations, policyin conversational analysis. The felicitous phrase is other structures theirs. theirguarantee of adequate description and 23 Thanksto Martin Krieger'sstudiesof physicists' validknowledge. work. [1] Stacy Burns provides a specific 24 EM authors of indispensable studiesare Melinda alternate. She deBaccus, Stacy Burns, Richard Heyman, Katherine ethnomethodological studies of Jordan, KennethLiberman,Eric Livingston, Michael scribes the gap in conventional Lynch, Doug Maynard,Jay Meehan, Louis Meyer, lawyers'workin law schooltraining. After Christopher Pack, Anne Rawls, Albert Robillard, Lucy reviewing well-known social sciencestudies Suchman,David Sudnow,PeterWeeks, and D. Lawof law school training, she writes:"These renceWieder. studies broadly outline, but 25 See Eric Livingston, Christopher Pack, Albert conventional Robillard, Katherine Jordan and MichaelLynch. are ultimately independent of, the detailed

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orderliness of how actual pedagogicinter- system for the storage and retrieval of change unfoldsin real time,in real space small librariesof valuable documents.He and in the firstplace in the law school described, with marvelous delicacy of what experientialspecifics gathered from his classroom.Theyare unable to specify if any, theremay be between jobs ofsellingand installing connection, his system and order- helpingmembers theobservabledetailand contingent of clientfirms to make it ing of pedagogictasksin thelaw classroom work,thatand just how context, practical of professionally action, categorizing phrases, reasons, and the skills identifying competent legal practice. . . . Hence the search prescriptions, relevance, identity, of definitions, lived and local orderlinessidentifying glosses, and glossaries were pedagogy in the law school classroom renegadetopics. unexplored anaremains predominantly Mooers' clients were engineers. "Conlytic territory. What is reported in the text"was an omnipresent renegadetopicin social scientific, educational,and jurispru- theirin-housediscussionsabout the Zatocdential literature leaves largely unad- oding systemand in, about, and as their dressed many mattersof centralpractical actual in-course work of naming docuto ments, describing, filing, searching for concern, relevance,and consequentiality law professors and their students. relevant texts but not being able or not (Burns, 1995). To conclude her point, wanting to prespecify whatit wouldhave to Burnsadds "As Heritagedescribesit," this look like beforeit was found; or finding ofall themissing descriptions just what theyneeded and discardingit as gap "consists of what occupational activitiesconsist of garbage; or so naming, filing,searching, and all the missing analyses of how and recovering documents that theircompractitioners manage the tasks which,for pany library in any of these ways of them,are mattersof serious and pressing operatingin it and withit would, to their worksatisfaction, significance . . . " (Heritage, 1984:299). have incorporated their <2> Practical actionand practical reason developing and changing interests. A user of the dictionary are vastlyworkedsubjects.They range in would selectan from the alchemically arcaneto itemizedstringof descriptors technicality as a search the commonplacesof pop technologies. prescription.Upon the completionof a in canoni- search,thedocuments thatdroppedhad to academically Subjectsare centered of Wittgenstein, cal investigations Dewey, be examined to learn what grammatic and, readingsthe itemscould be foundto have. Simon, Schutz, and Evans-Prichard, in The examinablecoherenceof a first in the ethnodisciplines mostinterestingly, collecethno- tion was often deliberately temporary, anthropology (e.g., ethnoastronomy, of undertaken recurrencies just to see whereit wouldlead. botany).In theseliteratures, actionandpractical reasonare made Was the documentrelevantly a document practical and exhibited observable had been directedto just in that the prescription instructably of generi- find? These and densely affiliatedother any actual case in the coherence cally theorized,formalanalyticdetails of "relevancies" could not be prespecified. Elaborate but separate topical Contextas a locallyoccasioned,instructastructures. actionare identifyingbly achieved, repeatedly and collaboraliteratures of practical of the separateuniversity depart- tivelyachieved, and achievable local phemainstays and sociology. of psychology nomenon by and for a firm's particular ments [2] Calvin Mooers' "Zatocoding" and gang was indispensable to assure the "Catalogs" respecifydescriptions,rules, locallyoccasioned,locallyachievedefficacy definitions, glossaries, schemas, instruc- as instructably reproduciblerecurrencies actions,actionsas a rule, of worksite tions,instructed practicesin details of storage, the "Catalog," all purposive actions, ends-meansschemata, numbersof documents, procedural accounts, operational defini- together with the "Zatocoding" procetions, context, science, oracular reason, dure-as an in vivoworksite achievement, divination ... just in any actual case. From 1952 until 1976 the Mooersian In 1952 Calvin Mooers, at the time a recentgraduateof MIT, had designedand catalog was used to add and procedurally needed to sell and service to engineering specifyrules, rule-governed activities,infirms his "Catalog" and "Zatocoding" dexical expressions, objectiveexpressions,

ETHNOMETHODOLOGY'S PROGRAM rational decision makingin commonsense situationsof choice, glossingas a way to talk plain English, methods, schemes of details, propertiedclasses of objects, and structure-structurein the way its use collects,and seeks to exhibitabout practical action, details in patterns,generality, standardization, comparability, typicality, uniformity, coherencein accordance with the logic of inductiveinference,and the existencecopula "is" in the senses "there exists"and "is identicalwith." <3> A thirdtopic of formalanalysis and their cognates: includes occasionmaps26 repair manuals, models, mock-ups, tour instructions, freeway signguides,assembly medical path descriptions, ing, contractors' decision trees, directions,rules, norms, musicalscores, blueprints, games-with-rules,

15

studies-e.g., definitional, essential, genetically criterial, essential,paradigmatic, primitive, primordial, primary, schema,ideal,ideal type, Uhr-thisthe eight sections of text in Cartogralpical Innovations and-that, etc. "Identifying" is a temporary place holder (Wallis and Robinson,1982) is a splendidsourceand for the work it describes when it is respecified guide. In addition, Norman Thrower's classic on maps ethnomethodologically. For thetimebeingI am usingit (recentlyrevised to be publishedby University of as a natural language It alludesto theworkit descriptor. Chicago Press) is indispensable, as is the canonical is usedin vivoto describe. No one needsto be inevitably textbook by Arthur Robinson. misled.
26

meaning,factual adequacy, followability, of instructions, of completeness sufficiency instructions, notationalclarity,analyzable format,methodicprocedure,and the rest are embedded in the territorially and historicized equipmentally practicesof the traveling. Being so embedded they are salient,27problematic, topical, unavoidof traveling's able, and [identifying]28 practices in relentlessly chiasmicallyembodied details of those practices. The map's properties of order*are exhibited in and as territorial organizational things. These are the map's very own territorial As territorial organizational things. objects in a phenomenalfield,the map's properties of order* are chiasmically chained to the traveling body's way-finding practices; theyare made available to thosepractices, . . . FA is embarrassed as thosepractices. analyticalcartography The map libraryat UCLA has a list of by occasionmapsand by theoccasioneduse don'tknowwhatto sketch maps that the Department of of maps.Formal analysts do withthem.The occasioneduses of maps Defense publishes, called landing maps, and turnedinto approach maps, horizonmaps, etc. From are treatedas mentalisms of the perceiver, features the point of view of embodied traveling, perceived features of a territory. ForFA the"real" mapis made theymust put in the hands of the troops an actual shorelineso merely perceived, by being ways of recognizing useless,rendered madesubjective. that they minimizetheir casualties. The [3] Occasion maps are low-cost,high- maps have this occasioned character not production gold mines. Whole librariesof because theyare faulted,but because they analytic cartographical maps and their are used. in specific EM alternates the Occasion maps are analytic cartogracognatesoffer achieved phy's stepchildren. locally occasioned, endogenously Formal analytic studies properties of logic, order, meaning, of occasion maps have missed these pheeffective pro- nomena entirely.With the same careful method,reason, rationality, suffi- technicalpoliciesand methodswithwhich completeness, cedure, followability, ciency, and the rest of occasion maps. formal analytic studies have described These are the endlesslyanalyzed topics of occasion maps, thesephenomenaare lost. <4> A fourth intellectual history. topic of formalanalysis It is not possible to read fromthe map includes scientific demonstrations such as the work of following the map in a Galileo's inclined planedemonstration of the way-finding journey. The traveler'swork of consultingthe map is an unavoidable 27 "Salience" is used in an EM respecification of detailin thelived,ongoingly, in-its-course, Gurwitsch's thatis, the "coherence (1964) result; of a travelingbody's way- group of data." first-time-through, He obtained this findingin his filnding journey that the map is consulted transcendental phenomenological criticism of thegestalt of form. to getdone. Underthatworksite condition, theory is misleading.I'm using it as a the map's consulted, relevant- 28 "Identifying" inspectable, collector forothermembers of its family thatare also to-the-userproperties of logic, order, misleading forEM
In order to specify theliteratures, GroupsI and3 of

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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY QUARTERLY

bodies in the moved arounda space also occupied by a real motion of free-falling It also includes stationary They asked subjectsto rectangle. of sciencestudies. literatures such as sciences, view the filmand answerquestions modelsand analogiesin thenatural (little is thebigtriangle use of mapsto describe "Whatkindofperson suchas Rasmussen's to circle)?" and theyasked subjects of methods in electron triangle, the development of themoviein a fewsentences. of tellthestory 1994) and studies (Rasmussen, microscopy Heider In their of subject'sanswers, sciences. analysis workin thenatural of and Simmelproposedthatsubjectssaw the properties [4] In thephenomenal-field in themoviein terms of distalstimuli of figures demonstration Galileo's inclined-plane according to moreproxibodies, thatweremediated of free-falling the [real motion]29 the achievedcoherenceof objects has very mal featuresof the field in which those much to do with naturally accountable stimuliwere embedded.In his own book features work.30 So do Louis Narens' "righthand" Heider arguesthatthesemediating variables of to were stages in intervening and "lefthand" paths frominstructions examples Therearecomparable sorts. the demonstrated[real motion] of free- various and elaborationsin various subjects and bodies, describedas S/T2 = K. falling "There's a gap in the literature" in demonstrations-for example, in studiesof alternates (alterscience libraries.I made inquiriesfirstto gestaltillusions,in figural several librariansin the physicslibraryat ations). [5] Visual horizons are perspicuous UCLA, and, when theycouldn't help, to Were theredescriptive settingswith which EM topics of figuradirector. thelibrary fields,chiasmic materialsavailable whose adequate peda- tionsof detail,phenomenal pairs, rendering gogic relevanceconsistsin that and in the relations of body/world the firstand second theorems, transcendentaldata, and the way that theyspecify observable as segments of Lebenswelt pairs?3' These rest are made instructably would be materialsthat are pedagogically achieved phenomena,just in any actual out the social gestaltists, in physics. case. By pointing relevantto teaching'sworksites Were any materialsavailable? Could any Heider and Lewin, Maynard lets a jinni be found for any of physics teaching's out of the bottle. "With theirfilmHeider worksites, from introductorylabs for and Simmel'come so, so close' and lose the to arcane settingsof col- phenomenon"(Douglas W. Matnard, perundergraduates laboratingprofessionalfaculty?Afterhe sonal communciation). His study is a showedme several volumesand described propaedeuticcase for a collectionof FA thatcome "so, so close" and severalothers,and afterhe listenedto my investigations reasons why they were not what I was lose the phenomenon.Maynard suggests lookingfor,the directorreplied, "There's that "withinHeider's account are indicationsof how subjectsactuallyperceive,not a gap in the literature." inertand extrasenThemes,topics, accordingto relatively <5> Gestalt phenomena: in gestalt psychol- suous stages and variables that accord subjects,demonstrations, some transcendental meaning,but, FA literature: stimuli an important ogy conatitute in experi- perception occurs according to in situ, alternates figural illusions, gestalt functionalsignificamental perception(e.g., "ambiguities"), sensuously-produced, CAD models and modeling.A classic FA tions formed between the geometricfigof Heiderand Simmel(1944), ures, theirparts, and additionalconstituwas that study unfoldsin timeas of ents whose presentation who, in orderto studythe psychology the proceperson perception,developed a moving- timeitselfis produced through with dures of actors. Subjects see one thing duration filmof 2 1/2minutes' picture a large precedinganotherand the other succeed(including figures variousgeometric a chronolassembling and a circle) that ing the one, thereby a small triangle, triangle, ogy out of an inextricably inner or 29 and is orderthattheninforms endogenous Square bracketsin bold, [ ], markoff an EM thatis described informed of thephenomenon account procedural figure by just what a geometric with thenamein theenclosedbrackets. mightbe as a typeof person" (Maynard, 30
of properties of thephenomenal-field See mystudy in Garfinkel 1995). demonstration Galileo's inclined-plane Indexing the classic gestalt domain of (forthcoming). 31 Lebenswelt illusionsand figuralalternatesin experipairsare discussesin 3.2 below.

ETHNOMETHODOLOGY'S PROGRAM

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exhibitsits production Maynard asks whether of a phenomenon's mentalperception, as a population. "therecould be "more" to thoseprocesses staff <7> The Dictionary of Occupational consciousglossedby thetermsperception, ness, cognition,etc. In a classroom con- Titles is a premiercollection of formal studies ofwork, andan extraordinary percep- analytic text,workingwithgestaltfigures, in the social sciences.In formal achievement be separated cannot tionand itsproduction and analytic studies of work, entries in the thatstudents frompublic descriptions produce and attendto as joint Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT), on professors of ethnographies courses of action. In embodied tellingsof the one hand,and analytic work, on the other, can be adequately read their seeings members bring into being either as "panels-of-a-cube," "fronts," "backs," and understoodinterchangeably of each other. "depth," "alternating synopsesor as elaborations "tallness," "width,"6 thesubject is therein These emerge in and as Theirinterchangeability configurations." in of a literature of massive bibliographies temporalized narratives enacted both through talk and through the body's social analysis, for in that relationthey andareexhibits ofthecorpus satisfy, gesturesthat concertedlymodel and re- specify, of status of their details structure. hearse visualizationsas classroom-specific Therein, DOT entries are sources for (Maynard, 1995). accomplishments" well-known advisories that serve across Also, EM's "Heideggerian" uses of as analytic of bodily impairmentsand studiesof workand occupations incongruities devices: ethnographic detailing e.g., "goal braininjuriesand illnessesare perspicuous oriented behaviors," "context-dependence," in revealing the ("hidden") transparent "rational problem solving,""local settings," workof achievedcoherence. "tacit knowledge," "skills," "the village ob<6> Phenomenamade instructably thecity."Coursebibliographies offer versus in formal detailsof concertservable analytic technical existence and correct guidesto their achievementsof practical edly recurrent use in established topicsof university departactions are so providedfor by FA that a ments and professional schools. and whatever thephenomenon phenomenon, teach [7] Various university departments whateverits scale, is made instructablyethnomethodological in studiesof expertise that work and occupations. Their required as the workof a population observable An instant is emphasisis on ineradicable,unavoidable, population staffs itsproduction. surveyable.It is exhibitedin surveyable indexical propertiesof adequate descripof body countsand dimensional- tions of work, etc. They require that particulars with attention Theseareelucidated ized demographics. be paid to the uniquelyadequate and competence variableanalysis,quantified arguments, of the analyst/practitioner as a of requirement for describing methods of causal structures. Analyticdescriptions inhabit the literatures of demog- work. This involves indifference populations to the industry, transcendental theU.S. Census,thesurvey raphy, analyst,and eschewing the social sciences,professional universal observer. "Ethnographic deuniversity-based schools,and therest. scriptions" are accounts of worksite[6] Endogenouspopulationsare specific specific"relevances"thatconsistin-course of of occupation-specific, EM alternates.An instantphenomenon observinstructably order-freeway traveling waves, service able, instructably reproduciblecoherence greetings-alongwith of ordered phenomenaldetails of struclines,conversational endogenouslyexhibitingits other details tures. Remedial expertise is directed to slowing ahead] in elucidating,as its targets,generic represuch as [unmotivated travelingwaves, [the apparent line that sentational theorizing, replacing it withthe exhibitsan order of service]in formatted phenomenonas the origin and source of queues, [thehearable absence of a greeting trouble. in return] in conversationalgreetingsexhibits as another detail its staff as a 2.3 Three Advisories population that produces it. More, the exhibitsits staffas an interphenomenon of workare also Advisories in EM studies its available for use as ethnographic changeablepopulation.More, it exhibits detailing as a surveyable staff in variouslistsby population.The work devices.These are offered

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properties areubiquitous. Theyareessentially unavoidable and without remedy or alternative. They are also specifically ordinary and andin both uninteresting, ofthese respects, in assuringas achieved phenomenacoherent sense, reference,and correspondence to objects, theydo so achievedly in uniquely to be misread-as praxeologically-i.e., adequate details.Theseare uniquely adequate for their observ- details of structures. worksite-specific instructions By thatis meantthat ability, followability, completeness,suffi- thesephenomena exhibit their locallystaffed their production as the commonplacework in intertwining, ciency, bodily/equipmental their in-courseevolving elaboration,their detailsof populations. autochthonous coherence,theirautonomous Theseproperties mark their observability as andtherest inprocedurally sine qua non in EM studiesof enacted phenomena criticism, coherent detailsofstructures. work.Theirexistence is demonstrable-their I offer three examplesof such specifically existence is bothinstructably observable and EM advisories:1) the uses by practitioners/ instructably reproducible-inall studiesof of an "etcetera clause"; 2) their uses work.Their adequateobservability analysts is staffof theinterpretive by Mann- specific, worksite-specific, gloss described discipline-speof interpre- cific. heimas thedocumentary method and 3) their uses of theproperties of These properties tation; of indexicalexpressions indexical expressions. are unique to incarnateinvestigations of 1) It was news that and just how an immortal, ordinary society. They are not used as cognitive "etceteraclause" can be used to provide properly functions. They to local occasion,forcompleteness are improperly according used as transcendentalized in a collection and generalizability ofrules.It intentionalities of analytic The consciousness. can be used as well to providefor other phenomenathat the devices are used to suffi- elucidate of rules-e.g., followability, cannot or recovered if the properties be found factual ofmeaning, adequacy, devices are interpreted ciency, ideality or if psychologically the ethnographic and anyof therest. are explicated universality, necessity, descriptions activities. 2) Another advisoryis the documentaryas psychologized And, in anycase The reader need wheretheyare administered as predescribed methodof interpretation. can be lucid,perfectly clear only recall the vexed jobs of readingand codes, theresult and the adequatedescrip- analyticethnographic writing careful, empirically description, will have missed the subject method of description tionsof work.The documentary and the point of the is a convenient gloss for the matter,its probity, interpretation withno accompanying workof local, retrospective-prospective, pro- description, sign that details they are misunderstood. ordered actively evolving phenomenal of seriality, comparison, The lessonsare clear: In orderto lose the sequence, repetition, thatthe devices describe,give and other structures. The gloss is phenomena generality, It is them and somehowconvincing. overto theintentionalities convenient of consciousto assuretheir loss in any also very powerfulin its coverage-too ness. And in order in theworldfor actualcase, do so with It getseverything themethods ofgeneric powerful. Its shortcomings are representational practitioners/analysts. theorizing. In anyactualcase it is undiscrimi- In deliberately careful* oftheir notorious: descriptions for nating and just in any actual case it is work,EM practitioners/analysts provided theprocedural of indexicalexprespresence absurdly wrong. the sions withrespectto persons,biographies, of EM studies, 3) Fromthebeginning of indexicalexpres- identities,settings,equipment,costumes, well-known properties and continue to offer less gestures, and language, sionshave offered vernacarchitecture, in unavoidable The properties of indexi- ularandtechnical, heroicpossibilities. relevancies are witnessable to these,practical expressions only locally to the parties.By attention in careful* This is known to one and tioners/analysts and endogenously. descriptive expoand are available sitionmake instructably observablework's all. Therein areknown they ofdetails; coherent to one and all in that they consist of uniquely definiteness their skills.The clarity, and the rest consistency, coherence, practitioners' vulgarly competent

agendain variousauthors as one or another weretaped theseminars at UCLA. Advisories provide forand and developed to deliberately exhibitthe relevanceof uniquelyadequate competenceto the describedwork of its Their practitioners, who are also its analysts. descriptions are written by designto be read

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of logic, completeness of its collection of basic rules; of work's observableproperties Theirstudies in any case of rule-governed actions, the meaning, reason,and method. of a collection of rules;in the of workdescribe, make instructablycompleteness specify, in queues;in catalog;in formatting and are exhibitsof the Mooersian observable,satisfy, endogenously achieved of methods; the thelocal, occasioned, uniqueadequacyrequirement of logic, reason, method,and of analysts/ properties uniquelyadequate competence practitioners who can be takenseriously of occasionmaps; in EM pairs; in by structure local companies and by "our shops" of Lebensweltpairs; and in the praxeological practitioners whose work the analystsde- validityof instructed actions. In the EM cases with scribe;and theobservable in-course, ongoing catalog these are propaedeutic in empirical, which to emphasize, with studies of inout of descriptions carrying instructably observabledetails of structuresstructed actions, the enormously prevalent indif- and commonplaceskill of praxeologizing while exercising ethnomethodological accounts. and thecorpus descriptive ference to policies,methods, All statusof formalanalytic investigations. of no use of theprivileges thiswhilemaking transcendental analysis and the universal 3.2 Praxeologizing Accounts Descriptive and without issuesof observer, bowdlerizing the whileat everypointsatisfying structure, In endlesslymany disciplines,as local demands of empirical adequacyforclaimsof occasiondemands, are required practitioners corpus. to read descriptive accountsalternately as instructions. as a Theydo so occupationally, of course,as vulgarly compe3.1 ThePraxeologicalValidity ofInstructed skilledmatter and tent, specifically ordinary, unremarkable Action worksite-specific practices. Thesearechained The manyachievements by theworldwide bodily and chiasmically to places, spaces, in theuses offormal architectures, social sciencemovement equipment,instruments, and to dispute. timing. Within a discipline, practitioners analytic technology are pointless FA technology's requiresuch competence Amongtheseachievements, of each other,not ofits exclusively achievement is thecorpus status premier but centrally just in any actual of case, and then unavoidablyand without bibliographies of studies.Fromtheoutset of FA's remedy, EM investigations, thecorpusstatus passing,evasion,or postponement. has provided ethnomethod-Whenoccasioncalls fora division bibliographies of work, with of instruc- practitioners themes ologicalinvestigations can be foundto concerttheir tionsand instructed actionsin topicsgalore efforts to assure a praxeological readingits forrespecifications as distinctively achieved recurrent, smooth, uninterrupted achievement of order*in and as the great by the culturally phenomena and organizationally local recurrencies of immortal, ordinary society staff of itsproduction. without bowdleriz- The EM catalog examines,as astronomisacrificing, downgrading, ing, avoiding,or losing ordinary society's cally,massively prevalent various work, ways accountableachieve- in whichan account endogenous, naturally that is readably descripments of structure, or changing the subject, tive-say diagrammatically, or as freeway andwithout thenatural lip-synching sciences. signing, or as wall announcements, or in the EM does not deny FA's achievements. prose of declarative sentences-canbe read WithoutdenyingFA's achievements, the alternatively so that thereading fora provides investigations of the EM catalog of radical phenomenon in twoconstituent segments of a of order*[repeatedly] phenomena pose the pair: 1) the-first-segment-of-a-pair, which empirical question:"What more is thereto consists of a collection of instructions; and 2) instructions and instructed actionsthanFA thework, just in anyactualcase of following does, did, everdid, or can provide?" whichsomehow turns thefirst segment intoa intheEM catalog description Distinctive investigations ofthepair.32 of achieved radical phenomena of order* bear and uniquely on instructions and particularly 32 I emphasizeof thepair. This is in contrast to a instructed actions.Cases of instructed actions common and even hackneyed use thatwould read this from theEM cataloghave been described in passage like this:Followinginstructions somehow turns in a game withrules,the them-i.e., the disengagedand disengageable games-with-rules; instruc-

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Call lateranalytic formats thattopicsand themes Call 2) the-second-segment-of-a-pair. ofinstructed actions arecollected andcometo account,as focusin EM studies work of readinga descriptive respecifying thenatural action sciencesas discovering of an instructed relatedconstituents sciencesof practical descriptive accounts." "praxeologizing action. of social analysisFor bothtechnologies Conditions of adequacyin EM investigaand tionsare used in each of theseto respecify policies, methods, forthe administered analysis (FA) and forthose FA's formats,< > and [ ], and their corpusof formal By "adequacyconditions" of ethnomethodology (EM)-somehow is relations. is meant with that key. BothFA and EM are preoccupied EM investigations, in each of thegroups, technical jobs ask "Whatdid we do? Whatdid we learn?": jobs and as their their technical of empirically specifying praxeologizing's (i) What did we learn thatis otherthan withan whatFA does, did,everdid,or can provide? work.Bothseek to replacesomehow (ii) Whatdid we learnthatFA recognizes observable just how. Each does instructably of as massively and unavoidably so withdistinctive policies and methods and prevalent formats. in distinctive analytic availableto FA in worksite-specific analysis details? FA does the specifying (iii) What did we learnthatFA depends Characteristically, generi- upon the existenceof for FA's worksiteand administering job by designing < > and specific achievements, Instructions for FA's pride of formats. callytheorized [ ] are described in gener- profession and technicalstock in trade of instructions-in-use relationsof correspon- instructably ically represented observable adequateprofessions de- of worldlinessand reality, and for the empirical dence. The analysisfurnishes of < >, and [ ], in one or another instructably observablecorpus statusof its scriptions thepair'sactual bibliographies? oftheir relations. With these, in (iv) Whatdid we learnthatFA uses and is madedecidable adequate correspondence EM everywhere in and as its in case. recognizes anyactualempirical In vivoworksite-specific EM does thespecifying job differently. practices? < > and [ ] in EM's early interests, These are practicesthatFA practitioners weredescribed justinanyactualcase knowandrecognize achievedrelations technically are work"such unavoidable,without of "interpretive as achievements remedy,and without of alternatives. The practices are indispensable method as "etcetera" and thedocumentary in ordinary factfinding. Later to practitioners, and practitioners demand interpretation studiesexaminedlocally produced, endoge- them.Justin any actual case the practices FA practitioners' accountable coher- identify work, they are achieved, naturally nously and are recogas coherent knownto FA's practitioners, ent haecceitiesthat constitute In all theserespects fieldsof nizedbythem to be that. actionsthe phenomenal instructed are specifically exam- thepractices to human"jobs." These studies uninteresting ordinary and are ignored. Known to of docile instructionspractitioners ined thetwo segments when in vivo they practitioners and recognized and their by themin all implementation areknown andwith thedistinction thepractices to and respects, aredistinguished they these by them forin vivo in formal analytically recognized categorically. areprovided careful and other classically specified,remedially And,FA practitioners, beingdeeply thatforFA's various sought relations of adequate description, in endlessenterprises reasonsmustmake the adequaadequate followability,disciplinary adequate facticity, and so cies of their of instructions, achievedprofessions of worldlicompleteness adequate observablein on. Since 1972 EM studiesof workin the ness and realityinstructably theorized structures and scienceshave addedto these generically of practical professions < > do notknowwhatto do with EM focusings that instructions action,therein previous as EM thesepractices. and instructions-in-use [ ] are related EM catalog investigations alternatesor EM pairs, as FA's respecify asymmetrical Each of thedifferent formats. LebensweltPairs, and as the praxeological analytic groups of studies does so distinctively with its actions. of instructed validity In each group of andwith these particular these later interests investigations. It is with thatare specified EMstudiesthe practices FA known to and are wise recognized by See of them. following description a tions-into is demanded their existence practitioners; by (1986). Livingston
the pair an instructedaction, and call the

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Logic, Reason, Meaning,Method,etc. in and As of existenceis themand dependedupon; their SociOrdinary observable the EssentialHaecceityof Immortal, specifiedand made instructably ety,"SociologicalTheory 88, V.6, No.1, pp. 103-109. as languages, in, about,as and in established . 1994. "Seven Cases withWhich to Specify How practicesof competent of worksite-specific Phenomenal Fields of Ordinary Activities Are Lost". for FA's practitioners Unpublished manuscript. and shoptalk; shopwork . Forthcoming.A Catalogue of Ethnomethodologwithwithout remedy, theyare unavoidable, ical Investigations, editedby Anne Warfield Rawls. FA competent theyidentify out alternatives; Boston:Basil Blackwell. in worksite-specific wit- Garfinkel, practices accounting Harold and D. Lawrence Weider. "Two nessable detail. And in worksite-specific Incommensurable, Asymmetrically Alternate Technologies of Social Analysis,"Pp. 175-206 in Text in and uninteresting detailtheyare specifically editedby GrahamWatsonand RobertM. Context, ignored. Seiler.Newbury ParkCA: Sage. EM asks: What in the world is so Gurwitsch, Aron. 1964. Fields of Consciousness. What andrelevantly omnipresent? obstinately Pittsburgh: DuquesneUniversity Press. knownand Heider, Maryanne and Fritz Simmel. 1944. "An in the worldis so unanimously of Apparent Experimental Study Behavior."American in the Where by FA practitioners? recognized Journal ofPsychology. 57:243-259. And how? worldis it found? John.1984 Garfinkel and Ethnomethodology. of FA's Heritage, The issue is this:In the entirety Cambridge: Polity Press. or "WhatMore" is nowhere specified corpus, Livingston, Eric. 1986. TheEthnomethodological FounNorcan "WhatMore" to instruc- dations of Mathematics.London: Routledge and specifiable. Kegan Paul. FA's with action be found andinstructed tions Then methods. just whatin theworldis being Maynard, Douglas. W. 1995 "Gestalt Theory and Ethnomethodology." Unpublished manuscript. looked for?Justwhatis to be found?Just Maynard,Douglas W. and StevenE. Clayman.1991. how? Just where? " Annual "The Diversity ofEthnomethodology. Review in theEM catalogoffer ofSociology17:385-418. The investigations Nicholas.1994. "Through Another Looking selected answers to these questions. The Rasmussen, and CulturalImportof the settings Glass: The Phenomenal answerscover selectedperspicuous Electron America."UnMicroscopein Mid-Century theEM catalog.Whatdid we do? What from published manuscript. can Rawls, Anne Warfield.1995. "Durkheim's Whatcan we do? Andwhat did we learn? EpistemolmanuUnpublished their ogy: The NeglectedArgument." alongwith EM investigations, we learn? EM policies and methods, script. accompanying Emmanuel. 1987. "AnalyzingSingle EpiTheir Schegloff, problems. composea catalogof tutorial sodes of Interaction: An Exercise in Conversation is that Analysis." Social Psychology and ontological status epistemological Quarterly (50)2:101These are of a catalogof tutorial problems. 114. in EM investigations forrepliesto Sudnow,David. 1978. Waysof theHand. Cambridge: grounds Harvard Press. University thesequeries. Knopf. REFERENCES
. 1979. Talk's Body. New York: Alfred A. . 1983. Pilgrim in the Microworld. New York:

of Babel" in, Borges,Jorge Louis. 1962. "The Library . 1996. The Sudnow Method. Princeton: The Inc. Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings, SudnowMethod, H. Robinson. 1987. editedby Yeates. IrbyNew Directions. Wallis, Helen M. and Arthur Bums, Stacy. 1995, "PracticingLaw: A Study of Innovations. Cartographical Map CollectorPublicain a Law School Classroom." PedagogicInterchange tions 1982 Ltd. in association withthe International manuscript. Unpublished Association. Cartographic Garfinkel, Harold. 1988. "Evidence for Locally Pro- Znaniecki,Florian. 1937. Social Actions.St. Albans: Canfield Accountable Phenomena of Order*, duced,Naturally Press.

Warner Books.

Harold Garfinkel is Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Department of Sociology at UCLA. His research interest is with theproblem ofsocial order.