ethnomethodology

is a method of describing procedures of everyday interactions via structures of expectation, negotiation, improvisation.

in the wake of J. Fishman's work, the ethnomethodological and sociolinguistic investigations of H. Garfinkel, W. Labov, H. Sachs, E. A. Schegloff, and others have described the procedures of everyday interactions relative to structures of expectation, negotiation, and improvisation proper to ordinary language.<10> (De certeau 1984: intro)

is concerned with 'how' social order is produced, whereas sociology tends to take the facticity of the social order for granted.

While traditional sociology usually offers an analysis of society which takes the facticity of the social order for granted, ethnomethodology is concerned with the 'how' (the methods) by which that social order is produced, and shared. (wiki)

is concerned with describing the practices (the methods) individuals use in their actual descriptions of those settings, whereas sociology tends to provide descriptions of social setting that compete with descriptions by the individuals who are party to those settings.

While traditional sociology usually provides descriptions of social settings which compete with the actual descriptions offered by the individuals who are party to those settings, ethnomethodology seeks to describe the practices (the methods) these individuals use in their actual descriptions of those settings. (wiki)

is grounded in the assumption that social order is illusory constructed in the minds of social actors and only appears to be orderly because of the organizing capacity of the mind.

Ethnomethodologist start out with the assumption that social order is illusory. They believe that social life merely appears to be orderly... in reality it is potentially chaotic. For them social order is constructed in the minds of social actors as society confronts the individual as a series of sense impressions and experiences which she or he must somehow organise into a coherent pattern.' (NET)

is grounded in the idea that meanings are subjective so the only objective social reality is that of commonly understood methods of communication.

the stance of ethnomethodology suggests that all meanings are and can only ever be subjective and that the only objective social reality, and therefore the only thing worth studying, is the reality of commonly understood methods of communication' (NET)

is interested entirely in the human capacity to produce order out of chaos.

It could be said that the human capacity to produce order out of chaos is the only worthwhile capacity in the eyes of the ethnomethodologist' (NET)

is interested in the practices individuals use in describing their settings whereas sociology makes descriptions which compete with those descriptions.

the study of a people's (folk) methods') (wiki)

ethnomethodology, n.Definitions

ethnomethodology