Ethnomethodology
Ethno’ (Ethno) means ‘folk’ or folk knowledge ‘Methodology’ (methodology) means subject-matter. Ethnomethodology means – the social science of the life of ‘everyday’. The purpose of this method is to systematically understand everyday events. The importance of ‘event’ is not as much as the meaning of ‘phenomena’. Public-legislative science wants to enter the inner thoughts of the individual. Public jurisprudence explains social phenomena, with regard to the subject matter of how ordinary people interpret events, communicate or exchange meaning. Public forensic science is that method, which is related to practical reasoning. Supporters of this method are, however, relatively few in number. Among them, the names of Garfinkle, Wittner, Sikoral, Churchill, McAndew Marman, Rose, Saxdon, Beater, Zimmerman etc. are notable.
Abraham writes – “Ethno-methodology are the general methods of knowledge used by individuals, through which meaning is given to daily activities and social reality is created and maintained.” – According to Landis Churchill- “Ethno-methodology Mainly emphasizes the study of those aspects of human behavior which are related to the normal and practical daily activities of a person. These verbs are simple and people do not understand any need to decipher their meaning. By giving importance to these daily activities, the only approach that studies them is ethno-methodology. Ethnology gives importance to three facts in its study
(1) The daily activities of man,
(2) the language of daily activities and its social aspect, and
(3) The reality of the normative aspects of situations and the processes of individuals following the norm in specific context situations.
In the interaction, people give meaning to the events and exchange that meaning, the study of this process is folk jurisprudence. The main pioneers of this method are Alfred Shoe and Garfinkel. This method is known by the name of Garfinkle itself. The term folk-law was coined by Garfinkel in his book ‘Studies in Ethnomethodology’ in 1967. According to Garfinkel, in the etymology of this word, ‘Ethno’ means the achievement of the general knowledge of his society to the person, its special emphasis is more on understanding than in the calculation of data, survey, analysis, questionnaires etc. Because other things only give man the status of a thing. Public jurists do not want to study only open behavior. They want to interpret the work from the point of view of the doer. Hence it is a Subjective Approach.
Folk-jurists study the day-to-day activities of human beings. They want to make practical activities, practical situations and practical sociological reasoning as the subject of their empirical study. According to him, socially meaningful perceptions are based on observation and analysis of everyday life.
Public law focuses more on what sociologists actually do and how they see the world. Folk-jurists emphasize on how social reality is formed in the process of social interaction. For them social reality is not a given thing, it is born in the process of interaction. For them social structure is not a permanent thing but it is dynamic, which is always changing; That’s why they shy away from generalizing.
According to him the social structure always changes while the actors give meaning to it. Social conditions are not always uniform but they are uncertain. As the individuals change in the interaction, the circumstances also change. Even the persons interacting remain the same, the situation need not remain the same.
So sociology cannot be viewed in isolation; But it should be a part of this world and that is why Garfinkal said that every person is a practical theorist.
The general tendency of sociology is to study the problems of society, everyday life is never considered problematic in this. Alfred Schutz was the first to mention the importance of everyday life. Folk-law phenomenon has been influenced by functionalism, especially the ideas of the philosophers sociologists Alfred Shuge and George Herbert Mead. Garfinkel, the exponent of the folk-law approach, mentions his debt to Hussl and Shuj. He has also said that he is also influenced by the ideas of Parsons and Gurwich. The interest of theorists is gradually increasing in the public-law approach.
Meaning of Ethnomethodology
. Garfinkel has clarified that the development of folk jurisprudence in anthropological terms such as – Ethno Botany. ethno medicine
As happened. Just as the word ‘botany’ in ethno botany refers to a group, which should be understood in terms of statistics. Similarly, in the ethno method, the method also indicates a subject-matter rather than a scientific plant. Public jurisprudence and research methods are not in conflict with each other but this is not a research method but a different approach to the study of society.
Ethnomethodology is not a scientific method of discovery. “Methodology should not be understood that it is a new methodology or a new method of research. The fact is that ethnomethodology does not support Scientific Positivism. It is a movement. It can be of any kind. It explains the methods by which the members of the society make the meaning of their activities demonstrable to each other. To find out how social order is possible and to know how people communicate with each other. Language and meaning are very important for public law scientists.
Public – legal science perspective is all related to
activities of everyday life.
Language and meaning.
The appraisal aspect of situations and the ways in which people use norms.
Garfinkel has been concerned with the practical and everyday activities of human beings in society because they make everyday life visible and reportable for them and for others. It relates to the methods they use to perform and manage those tasks. In the social world the important part is invisible. This is the given and invisible world. The task of the ethno methodologist is to eliminate this supply and expose the cultural foundations of its invisibility practice.
According to Hagedorn and Leboritz, “It is the examination of the logical properties of listed expressions and other practical functions as an indefinite and continuous supply of organized artistic practices of everyday life.
Sikorl has defined folk jurisprudence as “the study of everyday practical thought as the maker of all human activities. The main considerations are the use of members’ daily conversations and descriptions of everyday experiences and activities.”
Sikoral is primarily concerned with how language and meaning form the way in which social interaction takes place and is represented. For him, folk jurisprudence means the study of descriptive processes and standards in everyday social practices and scientific activities. Members in society interpret each other’s actions and communications and are therefore interested in public jurisprudence language. Linguists are also interested in language, but both have vastly different approaches. .
According to Sikorl, the interpretive process
Reciprocity of perspectives, some of the characteristics are
Adi – etc. beliefs.
normally.
retrospective meaning of events,
the conversation itself in self-representative form,
Descriptive Glossaries and Listed Expressions.
Characteristics of Ethnomethodology
This theory considers the reality to be changeable rather than permanent.
Man is not a person molded in the cultural environment, but a living being interacting normally by being active, this is the basic belief of this approach.
This approach gives enough importance to the place and context of the event and the language of the individuals.
Ethno-methodology is opposed to scientism but accepts observation in its studies.
This theory does not give importance to the normative format.
Objectivity has no place in ethno-methodology. Instead, this approach gives importance to subjectivity.
Ethno-methodology was born in opposition to classical sociology and this approach has emerged as Creative Sociology.
Ethno-methodology does not accept social values and norms.
In this approach, the formation of reality takes place through the process of interaction.
This approach gives special importance to the daily activities of the individuals.
Ethnology gives importance to explanatory study rather than numerical study.
An important feature of this approach is small scale study as it is a branch of symbolic interactionism.
Classical sociological theory draws conclusions on the basis of generalization of facts, but this theory emphasizes on understanding.
In this theory, the individual is important, that is, this principle gives importance to the attitude of individuals towards any event.
Language and its social aspect are given special attention in this approach, hence its second name is folk legal science.
In ethno-methodology those methods of study are used by which
Direct observation of the reality of events is possible.