Harold Garfinkel

Ethnomethodology studies the practical methods people use to make everyday situations appear orderly and understandable. Garfinkel focused on activities such as conversation, explanation, categorization, and the repair of misunderstandings.

Students disrupted taken-for-granted expectations, for example by acting like formal boarders in their own family homes, and recorded how others reacted. The point was to expose the hidden background rules people normally use without discussing them.

Accountability means that social actions are produced so that other people can recognize and describe what is happening. It does not primarily mean moral blame, but the observable and reportable character of ordinary conduct.

His emphasis on the detailed organization of everyday interaction helped shape the work of Harvey Sacks and other conversation analysts. They extended this approach by examining recorded talk for patterns such as turn-taking, sequencing, and conversational repair.