Ethnomethodology
In everyday life people face challenges, and obstacles, according to which the reaction construct an everyday reality. In the way people construct such reality many factors can be analyzed to explain why this reality is perceived and corresponding actions are taken in a particular way. In that sense, Ethnomethodology, a field of study founded by Harold Garfinkel, addresses the subject of the methods by which we create, support, and change the meaning of our everyday surroundings. In that regard, this paper illustrates how methodology can be used to explain how people create and sustain the reality in which Martians exist and might invade the earth.
Analysis
Ethnomethodology analyzes everyday issues to make the actions taken rational and practically explainable, i.e. accountable. Reflexivity is an important attribute of such everyday actions. Taking the example of the Martians existence, the reflexivity of our actions are the actions that that people perform in everyday life based on the fact that Martians exists.
Such actions might include watching various television shows about UFOs, explaining unexplainable actions and disappearances as Martians actions and etc. In that sense, the belief in Martians existence is an incorrigible belief, i.e. a firm belief that will not change and will not be admitted to be false whatever happens.
Explaining such propositions people use secondary elaboration, i.e. excuses according to which they think that their belief is correct. In the case of Martians existence, such excuse might be the variety of things that are unexplainable, such as a sight of a fallen star, disappearance of flying objects, drawn circles on the fields, weird behaviour, the fact that Mars is unobserved completely and etc.
Secondary Elaborations
In general secondary elaborations might be any fact that further promotes the firmness of the incorrigible belief.
In that sense, if a person who believes that Martians exist are faced with an argument that there is no documented appearances of Martians on earth, the persons instead of admitting the mistake of his incorrigible belief, might state that the government does not want some facts to be public in order not spread the panic among the population. In this case, the previous argument is a secondary elaboration.
Concerning the belief in Martians, people form a particular pattern of the events that support their belief. For example, the pattern might contain mutual characteristics of actions and events. In this case, the documentary method of interpretation is treating any new event, such as an unidentifiable flying object seen in the sky and recorded on camera, as document of the previously established pattern. If this event differs in characteristics of the pattern, this pattern might be updated. For example, if the flying object was flashing, a characteristic that was not previously recognized, the new pattern will expand to include this new feature.
According to Ethnomethodology, it can be understandable how many apparent false representations can hold so long for the people who believe in them. In that case, Ethnomethodology present actual pattern of how people form such representations and accordingly how these representations are supported.
Social Interactions
According to Goffman, our everyday life situations are mini versions of stage performances, where every participant is an actor. Goffman represented the social interaction as an interrupted sequence of small dramas, which happen to all of us and where we as actors play ourselves. In that sense, one of life situations that can be represented as a drama is the case when your boss spots you laughing in a grocery store after you met an old friend, despite of the fact that you feeling really ill, called in sick to work, and you went out to store for some medicine. This paper analyzes this situation based on Goffman’s dramaturgical theory, relating the main concepts of the theory to the main aspects of such incident.
Analysis
The setting, as a location of acting can be described in this situation by two related factors. One is the actual setting, i.e. the grocery store, and the other one is the work place, where presumably the performance is observed by the boss. In that sense, if assuming that the meeting with an old friend is also some sort of acting, i.e. laughing and remembering old stories, then in this case there are two front-stages.
One is the performance at work, when one is forming a particular image in his interaction with colleagues and bosses, where the latter form the audience. The other front-stage is the relationship with old friend, where you correspond to the image formed back in the days when you were together. If it is not acting, then the relationship with an old friend can be related to outside regions, i.e. regions which are neither back nor front. In any case the front-stage at work and the back-stage remain the same.
The back-stage in this case, i.e. the places where you are not observed by the others and act as your real self, is the place of your home where you can be sick.
Considering the reaction of the boss on the performance at the grocery store, where laughing is an error in performance, this error can be overlooked or explained by him in order to keep the allusion of the front-stage. In a different case, the signs that we give off might form a threat as they can define the situation for the boss, according to which this performance undermine the performance on stage. In that sense, managing owns expression can correct the threats. One way to manage the expression is to make it seem real and spontaneous. In that case, a painful smile, with a phrase addressed to your boss such as, “I met my friend while searching for some medicine, and remembering old times made me forget my pain.“
Another approach can be seen in staging a team performance, where the friend could help in setting a correct definition of the situation. A conversation with my friend might contain a phrase such as,” If not feeling sick I would have stayed longer, because you already made me forget the pain.” In that sense, my friend might understand the situation and react accordingly.
It can be seen that Coffman’s theory can explain many actions that we take in our life, which seem natural. Describing the theatre as a stage, explains the way we react to different situations and “audiences” in a way that forms distinct impressions in each case.
Works Cited
Goffman, E. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Doubleday, 1959.
Ritzer, George. Contemporary Sociological Theory and Its Classical Roots : The Basics. 2nd ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2007.
Seedhouse, Paul. “Conversation Analysis Methodology.” Language Learning 54 (2004): 1-54.