ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book suggests that ethnomethodologists seem to spend a lot of their time apologizing. Sociologists in general use the title Ethnomethodology at Play to draw attention to, and to contrast it with, conventional sociological studies in the 'sociology of work and leisure' and the 'sociology of sport'. The book also discusses the way of proceeding constitutes a well-established approach to ethnomethodological work that Garfinkel termed 'hybrid' studies. It takes the practices involved in arriving at this state of apparent completion as its principal topic and works through specific materials in order to reveal the nature of the collaborative work and associated bodies of reasoning in play here. The book also explores how birders make use of expectations and 'candidate identifications' in order to produce accountably adequate propositions regarding just what it is they might be hearing.
