ethnomethodologian

Ethnomethodology is a sociological approach that studies the methods people use to make sense of their everyday lives. It focuses on the practical, everyday activities of people and how they create and maintain a sense of social order. Instead of looking at abstract social structures, ethnomethodologists examine the detailed, often unnoticed, ways individuals use ordinary reasoning and common sense to understand and navigate their social world.

The term "ethnomethodology" was coined by Harold Garfinkel in the 1960s. It literally means the study of people's methods. Key to ethnomethodology is the idea of "indexicality," meaning that the meaning of any utterance or action is dependent on its specific context. Because meanings are context-dependent, ethnomethodologists are interested in how people make those meanings clear to each other.

Central to ethnomethodological research are "breaching experiments," where researchers deliberately disrupt normal social expectations to observe how people react and restore order. This helps reveal the underlying, taken-for-granted assumptions that structure social interaction. Ethnomethodology emphasizes the view that social order is not something imposed from above, but rather something actively produced and reproduced by members of society through their ongoing social practices. It is concerned with the "how" of social life, rather than the "what" or "why."