Ethnomethodology and the visual : practices of looking, visualization, and embodied action

Smith, GWH; Ball, M

Abstract

The chapter considers the relevance of ethnomethodology for visual studies through an examination of selected studies. Ethnomethodology’s distinctive contribution to visual studies arises from its unremitting concern to analyse the specific details of social practices as they are enacted in situ. The essential observability of the details of these practices is the point of departure for ethnomethodology’s interest in how ordinary practices are produced and recognized by members of society. The chapter examines how ethnomethodological research studies address the visual dimension. Its orientation is broadly historical and methodological. We stress the role of technical developments that have facilitated the recording of the visual specifics of social practices. The impact of Goodwin’s enormously productive notion of ‘professional vision’ is traced. Our chapter shows the continuing relevance of ethnomethodological studies of the visual in light of current empirical and theoretical preoccupations with materiality and embodiment.

• Publication Date: Jan 11, 2020
• Deposit Date: Feb 25, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 11, 2022
• Pages: 413-433
• Series Title: SAGE Reference
• Book Title: The SAGE Handbook of Visual Research Methods (2nd edition)
• ISBN: 9781473978003
• Publisher URL: https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/the-sage-handbook-of-visual-research-methods/book250969#contents
• Related Public URLs: https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur