Table Of ContentETHNOMETHODOLOGY,
CONVERSATION ANALYSIS
AND CONSTRUCTIVE ANALYSIS
This book revisits the arguments by which Harvey Sacks and Harold Garfinkel
opposed the widespread attempt in the social sciences to construct disciplinary
theories and methods in place of common-sense knowledge of human action,
and proposed instead an alternative that would investigate the organised meth-
ods of natural language use and common-sense reasoning that constitute social
orders – arguments that led to the establishment and proliferation of ethnometh-
odology and conversation analysis.
As the very “constructive analysis” that they opposed has begun to be incor-
porated into influential lines of research in ethnomethodology and conversation
analysis, the authors return to the founding insights of the field and reiterate the
importance of Garfinkel and Sacks’ original and controversial proposals for an
“alternate” sociology of practical action and practical reasoning. Showing how con-
structive analysis has become entrenched in ethnomethodology and conversation
analysis and arguing for a need to “re-boot” these approaches, this volume consti-
tutes a call for a renewal of the radical alternative proposed by Garfinkel and Sacks.
Graham Button completed his PhD in sociology at the University of Man-
chester in 1975. He has published in the fields of both conversation analysis and
ethnomethodological studies of work, and has developed collaborations with
researchers in interactive computer systems design, extensively publishing in
CSCW and HCI journals and books. His last appointment was Professor and
Pro-Vice Chancellor for Arts, Computing, Engineering and Science at Sheffield
Hallam University and before that he was the Laboratory Director of Xerox
Research Centre Europe, first in Cambridge, and then in Grenoble. He has been
a Principal lecturer in Sociology at the University of Plymouth; Visiting Faculty
at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Boston University; Visiting
Professor at the Universities of Nottingham and Plymouth; Visiting Scholar at
the University of Cambridge and Visiting Senior Fellow at Tembusu College,
the National University of Singapore. He currently enjoys being free of all insti-
tutional affiliations and obligations.
Michael Lynch is Emeritus Professor of Science & Technology Studies
at Cornell University, and Research Professor in the School of Media and
Information, University of Siegen, Germany. He received his PhD in Social
Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, in 1979, and has held positions
in Sociology, Human Sciences, and Science & Technology Studies at Whitman
College, Boston University, Brunel University, and Cornell University. His
major fields are ethnomethodology and social studies of science. He has inves-
tigated practical action, visual representation, and discursive interaction in
scientific and legal settings, and also has written extensively about conceptual
and analytical issues in the social sciences. He was Editor of Social Studies of
Science from 2002 until 2012 and was President of the Society for Social Studies
of Science in 2007–2009.
Wes Sharrock has been at the University of Manchester since 1965, first as
a graduate student, and, since 1968, until retirement in 2018, as a member of
the Sociology staff. He now has an Emeritus affiliation with the University.
Troubled by Sociology’s apparent inability to take a serious interest in the world
of daily life, he was influenced by Manchester’s social anthropologists and early
drawn to the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Alfred Schutz, Harold Garfinkel,
and Harvey Sacks, regarding them as – even now – largely under-appreciated.
In company with collaborators of the same persuasion he has published on a
diversity of sociological/philosophical topics in forms ranging from introductory
guides to sociological theory and the philosophy of social research to journal
papers on design projects, computer modelling in biology, print work, and math-
ematician’s work inter alia. He has long wanted to write a piece called It’s the
language, stupid but hesitates to do so for fear it would cause offence.
Directions in Ethnomethodology
and Conversation Analysis
Series Editors: Andrew Carlin, University of Macau,
Macau SAR, China, and K. Neil Jenkings,
Newcastle University, UK.
Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis are cognate approaches to the study
of social action that together comprise a major perspective within the contemporary
human sciences. Ethnomethodology focuses upon the production of situated and
ordered social action of all kinds, whilst Conversation Analysis has a more specific
focus on the production and organisation of talk-in-interaction. Of course, given that so
much social action is conducted in and through talk, there are substantive as well theo-
retical continuities between the two approaches. Focusing on social activities as situated
human productions, these approaches seek to analyse the intelligibility and accountabil-
ity of social activities “from within” those activities themselves, using methods that can
be analysed and described. Such methods amount to aptitudes, skills, knowledge, and
competencies that members of society use, rely upon and take for granted in conducting
their affairs across the whole range of social life.
As a result of the methodological rewards consequent upon their unique analytic
approach and attention to the detailed orderliness of social life, Ethnomethodology
and Conversation Analysis have ramified across a wide range of human science disci-
plines throughout the world, including anthropology, social psychology, linguistics,
communication studies, and social studies of science and technology.
This series is dedicated to publishing the latest work in these two fields, including
research monographs, edited collections and theoretical treatises. As such, its volumes are
essential reading for those concerned with the study of human conduct and aptitudes, the
(re)production of social orderliness and the methods and aspirations of the social sciences.
On Sacks
Methodology, Materials, and Inspirations
Edited by Robin James Smith, Richard Fitzgerald and William Housley
The Body of Knowledge
Fieldwork and Conceptualization in Social Inquiry
Kornelia Engert
Harold Garfinkel: Studies of Work in the Sciences
Harold Garfinkel and Michael Lynch
Ethnomethodology, Conversation Analysis and Constructive Analysis
On Formal Structures of Practical Action
Graham Button, Michael Lynch and Wes Sharrock
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.com/Directions-
in-Ethnomethodology-and-Conversation-Analysis/book-series/ASHSER1190
ETHNOMETHODOLOGY,
CONVERSATION
ANALYSIS AND
CONSTRUCTIVE
ANALYSIS
On Formal Structures
of Practical Action
Graham Button, Michael Lynch
and Wes Sharrock
Cover image: Getty images
First published 2022
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Graham Button, Michael Lynch and Wes Sharrock
The right of Graham Button, Michael Lynch and Wes Sharrock to be
identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other
means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
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Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Button, Graham, 1950- author. | Lynch, Michael, 1948- author. |
Sharrock, W. W. (Wes W.), author.
Title: Ethnomethodology, conversation analysis and constructive
analysis : on formal structures of practical action / Graham Button,
Michael Lynch, Wes Sharrock.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2023. |
Series: Directions in ethnomethodology and conversation analysis |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022015288 (print) | LCCN 2022015289 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781032106052 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032116273 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003220794 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Ethnomethodology. | Conversation analysis. |
Discourse analysis.
Classification: LCC HM481 .B87 2023 (print) | LCC HM481 (ebook) |
DDC 305.8001--dc23/eng/20220509
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022015288
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022015289
ISBN: 9781032106052 (hbk)
ISBN: 9781032116273 (pbk)
ISBN: 9781003220794 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003220794
Typeset in Bembo
by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
To The Memory of Harvey Sacks
CONTENTS
Preface xi
Acknowledgements xiv
Introduction 1
PART I
Foundations
1 On Formal Structures of Practical Action 11
2 Sequential Analysis as an Investigation of Formal Structures
of Practical Action 42
3 Ethnomethodological Studies of Work 60
PART II
Conversation Analysis
4 Autonomous Structures of Conversational Actions 83
5 Technical and Vernacular Description 114
