ABSTRACT
Ethnomethodology as an approach to sociological analysis derives from the work of Garfinkel (1967). Garfinkel’s theoretical endeavors have focused on problems central to sociology-those of “the theory of social action, the nature of intersubjectivity and the social construction of knowledge”(Heritage, 1987, p. 225). Put simply, this qualitative approach to research seeks to examine how members make meaning of one another’s utterances and actions, and what that meaning might be in any specific encounter. Researchers using ethnomethodological approaches to research are keenly interested in how members’ knowledge is constructed in and through talk and text. In this chapter, I briefly outline relevant terms and features of ethnomethodological studies before providing an overview of conversation analysis (CA), a field of study deriving from ethnomethodology (EM). I then provide examples of different types of ethnomethodological and conversation analytic studies, review suggested ways to begin suchwork, and conclude by proposing contributions of this type of work.
