Thanks very much for your message, Jay. No, I didn't read any of your
messages as personal criticisms. :-) I was just worried that I might
have misled others into some misconceptions about ethnomethodology (EM
for short... I always find this word difficult to type :-), and my
fellow-students always find this word difficult to pronounce! :-) ).
Ethno-methodology is the study of how people do things, or of people's
methods/practices: "ethno" meaning a group of people (sharing some cultural
resources), "methodology" meaning their methods. I was attracted to it
for some of the reasons you mentioned; but I'm not limited by it, also
for some of the reasons you mentioned. I've read some of Bourdieu's
comments on EM, and also Anthony Giddens' comments on EM...
I was, (fresh and bold as a young student usually is)... even engaged in an
argument with some ethnomethodologists/conversation analysts over my
recurrent concern: how to understand larger social issues with EM... on
another e-mail discussion list... well... :-) some of our fellow
xmca'ers who are also on that list know what happened to me... well... I
always say what I find intellectually interesting to say, what I find
socially responsible to say... I try to respect every discipline for we
can surely learn something from each discipline... while I'm developing
my own tentative views... I don't have any disciplinary baggage or
invested interestes in any disciplines... and so I can be free to choose
whatever tools that help in different situated inquiries...
I find this list (xmca) generally presents a liberal, multi-disciplinary
discussion atmosphere, and that's something very valuable for
cross-fertilization of ideas and for developing a self-critical
attitude. So, i'm thankful to your messages and others, who have always
tried to show great care and respect for our differences but also try to
reach out to understand each other...
Happy New Year :-)
Angel