Harold Garfinkel, a sociologist, was born on October 29, 1917. He was Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he worked from 1954 until his retirement in 1987. In the 1950s, he coined the term ethnomethodology.
G. Garfinkel's ethnomethodology is studied in such fields as social anthropology, communication and computer science, pedagogy, science and technology. It has become generally accepted to call him the founding father of ethnomethodology.
The essence of the concept
In the social sciences, a methodology usually refers to systematic methods of collecting and analyzing data, but following Garfinkel, ethnomethodologists identified it with a wide range of ordinary abilities, such as participating in conversational exchanges, navigating traffic situations and recognizing what is happening in specific social conditions. The idea was that the totality of such practices accumulates in droves among things and people that we call society, even if participants in certain practices do not aspire to anything other than direct circumstances.
Scientific work
Garfinkel’s main work, Ethnomethodology Studies (1967), casts doubt on top-down theories, which suggest that society is built around relatively limited sets of rules and comprehensive values. He presented an alternative picture of society from the bottom up, created from countless cases of improvised behavior, adapted to specific situations. Although many scientists did not accept his vision, social theorists and philosophers such as Anthony Giddens, Pierre Bourdieu and Jürgen Habermas, found it necessary to pay attention to this theoretical problem.
Ethnomethodologists have shown that formal methods and procedures that occur in courtrooms, research laboratories, and workplaces are reinforced by everyday understanding, argumentative practice, and acquired skills. Garfinkel disputed the idea that sociological methods are based on special scientific rationality, which is independent of the irrational and subjective foundations of ordinary social behavior. Some were worried that Garfinkel’s vision destroyed the very idea of an objective science of society; others tried to agree on how to study society as an created product of collective activity.
Biography
Harold Garfinkel grew up in Newark, New Jersey, where his father, Abraham, ran a small business. Harold studied accounting at Newark College, but showed interest in sociology. In 1942, he received a master's degree in sociology from the University of North Carolina. His early publications, based on a master's thesis on racial relations in the American South, demonstrated a keen understanding and ability to speak plain English fluently. His first publication, Color Trouble, was a quasi-fictional story about a conflict that arose when an African American woman refused to sit in the back of the bus when the car crossed the Mason-Dickson line on the road from New York to North Carolina. He was included in the collection of the best stories of 1941.
After serving during World War II, he began his doctorate with Talcott Parsons at Harvard. Following the example of the latter, Harold took up theoretical development. His works became sinuous and difficult to understand both the uninitiated and many initiates.
T. Parsons and his students sought to reinvent sociology. To this end, they have formulated a comprehensive theory of social structure and social action. Garfinkel shared these ambitions, but in the end went a completely different way.
Main ideas
He sought to investigate the alleged existence of public order through a series of unique studies that disrupted normal procedures in households and public places. Even seemingly mild disruptions, such as the role of a polite stranger at the dinner table of his own family, caused explosive reactions with indignation. This demonstrated a moral responsibility embedded in even the most mundane routine. Contrary to the prevailing attempts of social theorists to derive individual actions from postulated social structures, Garfinkel delved into the little things of everyday life. He did not seek to reduce actions to psychological or neurological reasons; instead, he tried to carry out communicative actions down to their fundamental details.
The personality of the scientist
Harold Garfinkel was a wonderful person and a volatile personality. In conversations, he used startlingly original arguments, unique examples, and amazing phrases. During seminars and lessons, he pondered questions, presenting them visually, almost theatrically, pausing for an exorbitant amount of time, while beginners were waiting for his words. Often he broke the silence with mysterious statements and jokes. His writings and published lectures were permeated with a deep understanding of irony and absurdity.
Harold Garfinkel died at the age of 93 in 2011. He was survived a little by his wife Arlene, whom he had been married for 65 years. The couple still had children - Leah and Mark.
Featured Publications
Most of Harold Garfinkel’s original works were presented in the form of scientific articles and technical reports, most of which were subsequently reprinted as book chapters.
However, in order to appreciate the consistent development of a scientist’s thought, it is important to understand when these works were written. For example, the Sociological Vision, which was published relatively recently, was actually written when Harold Garfinkel was a graduate student. This is an annotated version of a draft dissertation prepared two years after arriving at Harvard.
The Sociological Information Theory was written back when he was a student. It was based on a 1952 report prepared in conjunction with a project of organizational behavior at Princeton. Some of the early works on ethnomethodology were reprinted subsequently. This volume is considered classic for those who work in this area. Harold Garfinkel later edited an anthology showing examples of early ethnomethodologically sound research. A selection of his later works was reprinted as an ethnomethodology program. This collection, together with research, is the final presentation of the ethnomethodological approach.