In order to best explain the field of ethnomethodology, which studies how social order comes to happen through the actions of individuals, sociologist Harold Garfinkel set up “breaching experiments,” an invitation for researchers to break traditional societal rules and examine how people react to the disruption. For example: experimenters can act like they’re guests in their homes and tip their families for their “service,” or they can reach out to customers in stores and restaurants, “confusing” them for clerks and servers. With these social non-sequiturs, Garfinkel hoped people would see how they often are unconscious keepers of rules and referees of normalcy—therefore, beings with much more power than they imagined.
In 1958, while he was in the midst of defining ethnomethodology at UCLA, Garfinkel met Agnes, a 19-year-old who claimed to be intersex and arrived in hopes they would be eligible for genital surgery in order to live fully as a woman.
In 1958, while he was in the midst of defining ethnomethodology at UCLA, Garfinkel met Agnes, a 19-year-old who claimed to be intersex and arrived in hopes they would be eligible for genital surgery in order to live fully as a woman.
- 12/5/2022
- by Jose Solís
- The Film Stage
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