Thanks for your interest in this area of work. As Jay mentioned "several
messages ago", it's difficult to talk about EM/CA in compressed
e-mail messages. As with many other disciplines, EM/CA work needs some
unpacking, some close reading, and some background in Wittgenstein's
ordinary language philosophy... and perhaps due to its radical approaches,it
unfortunately has usually invited lots of misunderstanding about its
premises. And these misunderstandings have been so widespread that it's
difficult to know when EM/CA can be a useful tool and when it is not.
James Heap has written some pieces which may interest those who want to
know more about the area, and here they are (there are no doubt
other useful introductions, too, e.g., George Psathas' recent book,
called Introduction to Conversation Analysis (if my memory of the title is
correct):
(1) Heap, J.L. (1980). "Description in Ethnomethodology" _Human Studies_,
3, 1, 87-106.
(2) Heap, J.L. (1990). "Applied Ethnomethodology: Looking for the local
rationality of reading activities." Human Studies, 13, 1, 39-72.
(3) Heap, J.L. (1982). "Understanding classroom events: A critique of
Durkin, with an alternative." Journal of Reading Behavior, 14, 4,
391-411.
(4) Heap, J.L. (1976). "What are sense-making practices?" Sociological
Inquiry, 46, 2, 107-115.
(5) Heap, J.L. (1981). "Free-Phantasy, Language and Sociology." Human
Studies, 4, 4, 299-311.
(6) Heap, J.L. (1991). "Ethnomethodology, Cultural Phenomenology, and
Literacy Activities." Curriculum Inquiry, 21, 1, 109-117.
(7) Heap, J.L. (1984). "Ethnomethodology and Education: Possibilities."
The Journal of Educational Thought, 18, 3, 168-171.
Well, I'll recommend (1), (2), and (7) in particular. One might want to
start with (7), then (2), then (1) as (1) might be a little theoretical
to start with...
Cheers,
Angel
P.S. Thanks Margaret for telling me about the book and Auld Lang Syne :-)
On Mon, 1 Jan 1996, Judy wrote:
> Greetings, Angel, this first day of 1996. Thanks for the references to
> first person EM work. It runs quite counter to what I had understood to
> be the premises of EM, which several recent messages have referred to.
> After I read James Heap's piece, I will write again. - Judy
>
> Judy Diamondstone
> diamonju who-is-at rci.rutgers.edu
> Rutgers University
>
>