ABSTRACT
Drawing on video-recorded community-based composting activities in public space, this chapter identifies and describes the constitutive details of queuing practices as a members’ phenomenon. Queues constitute an example of the self-instructable phenomenon in the sense that people commonly, regularly, and ordinarily queue and exhibit the existence and the order of the queue. The emerging queue, its shape and trajectory, and the position and spacing of its members are visibly understandable as instructions, to both queue members and outsiders, on where and how to queue. This chapter deals with the practical issues newcomers face when identifying a queue, recognizing its last members, detecting its members and non-members, positioning themselves in a way that aligns with them, and being recognized by them, thereby reflexively constituting and expanding the queue. Newcomers particularly reveal the instructable character of the queue: the indeterminacies of the queue are solved within time, by inspecting the organization of the queue as it vividly progresses. Newcomers position and adjust themselves in ways that take various possibilities into account, while waiting, monitoring, and inspecting for the uniform and coherent next movements in the queue. Our analysis contributes to the ethnomethodological studies of social order and organization, as well as the accountable and instructable character of practical actions.
