Ethnomethodology and the position of relativist discourse

McHoul, A.W. (1981) Ethnomethodology and the position of relativist discourse. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 11 (2). pp. 107-124.

Abstract

The paper works through the topic of ‘theorising’ as it has been treated in ethnomethodology. It is concerned to show (a) that the topic has a somewhat equivocal status within that discourse; (b) that some recent self-critical moves in ethnomethodology which have been touched off by considering these problems constitute no more than further uncritical repetitions of that discourse; (c) that ethnomethodology's critics have been concentrating unnecessarily upon its supposed ‘idealism’ and have missed a central trouble: that ethnomethodology is an overly realist form of social scientific work.