Ethnomethodology and the Human Sciences [Paperback]

Graham Button (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 30, 1991 | ISBN-10: 0521389526 | ISBN-13: 978-0521389525 | Edition: First Edition

Traditionally, when the human sciences consider foundational issues such as epistemology and method, they do so by theorising them. Ethnomethodology, however, attempts to make such foundational matters a focus of attention, and directly enquires into them. This book reappraises the significance of ethnomethodology in sociology in particular, and in the human sciences in general. It demonstrates how, through its empirical enquiries into the ordered properties of social action, ethnomethodology provides a radical respecification of the foundations of the human sciences, an achievement that has often been misunderstood. The chapters, by leading scholars, take up the specification of action and order in theorising, logic, epistemology, measurement, evidence, the social actor, cognition, language and culture, and moral judgement, and underscore the ramifications for the human sciences of the ethnomethodologist's approach. This is a systematic and coherent collection which explicitly addresses fundamental conceptual issues. The clear exposition of the central tenets of ethnomethodology is especially welcome.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"These essays furnish much to think about. Most of the points have been well argued before, but these authors trace the contours of the arguments in greater detail and extend them to realms previously unaddressed." Richard A. Hilbert, Contemporary Sociology

Book Description

Through its empirical inquiries into the ordered properties of social action, this text demonstrates how ethnomethodology provides a radical respecification of the foundations of the human sciences, an achievement that has often been misunderstood.

Product Details

• Paperback: 292 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; First Edition edition (August 30, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521389526
• ISBN-13: 978-0521389525
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,559,778 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the best collection of ethno. papers in print, September 4, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Ethnomethodology and the Human Sciences (Paperback)

Button gathered some of the elite thinkers in ethnomethodology together for this collection, and what a collection it is! Spanning such diverse topics as logic, cognition, ethics, methodology, social action theory, science, etc., it is by far one of the most impressive books ever produced by professional ethnomethodologists announcing their unique philosophical and social-scientific perspective and its genuinely inter-disciplinary relevance. Its rigor is its most intriguing characteristic: rarely do we find, from sociologists, writing of this caliber and care, with such attention to scholarship and to argumentation. All in all, an excellent, intriguing and stimulating series of insights into the ethnomethodological world. Ethnomethodology? The logical inquiry into how human conduct ACTUALLY operates in real-time and in the real world. NO to theorising, no to stipulative operationalising: YES to the detailed logical analysis of human conduct and its circumstances. An eye-opener!