Thanks for your interest in this kind 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 because of its sometimes difficult
terminology (a fact lamented by many EM/CAists themselves), it 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 in one's inquiry.
James Heap has written some pieces which may interest those who want to
know more about the discipline, 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!
Cheers,
Angel
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
>
>