Garfinkel, Harold

Born on October 29, 1917, in Newark, New Jersey, Harold Garfinkel is widely known as the father of ethnomethodology (EM). Scholars associated with EM work in all areas of intellectual enterprise, including most subdisciplines of sociology and many other disciplines as well. Popular research areas typically associated with micro, or qualitative, sociology, usually thought of as quite distinct, are often closely associated with EM.

Garfinkel's groundbreaking approach toward social practices, beginning in the 1930s and 1940s was the first to take up Durkheim's idea that the key to social order in modern times was the study of social practices. In explaining what he meant by practices that could not be reduced to propositions, Durkheim ([1893]1933) focused on science, arguing “that to gain an exact idea of ...