Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis

These topics represent avenues for inquiry into structures of everyday life. Ethnomethodology literally means “the study of members’ methods.” Those methods are the common-sense practices by which the participants in a social setting assemble its prominent features–the courses of action in which they are engaged, the relevant identities of personnel who inhabit the setting, and other experienced characteristics of the setting. Conversation analysis also investigates commonsense practices, and in particular the manner by which speakers and hearers produce and understand talk as part of their social actions and interactions. Faculty and students doing ethnomethodogical and conversation analytic studies investigate many kinds of settings and phenomena–survey interview interactions, bad and good news, testing for developmental differences, “doing” sexuality, achieving order in barrooms and busses, displaying emotions, etc.