Ethnomethodology and Text Data

Abstract

Ethnomethodology has mainly focused on analyzing audio or video data of talk-ininteraction. Recently, however, ethnomethodological studies analyzing text data are gaining increasing attention in Japan. This paper aims to develop methodological arguments to provide goals, methods, and perspectives of ethnomethodological studies of text data. First, based on previous ethnomethodological studies, this paper presents a fundamental principle of ethnomethodological studies of text data. Instead of treating texts as mere representations of social phenomena or resources for analysis, ethnomethodology analyzes them in their own right and elucidates how they are made understandable as particular actions. Second, responding to conversation analysts' criticism regarding the difficulty of using co-participants' understandings as analytic resources in texts, this paper defends the ethnomethodological analyzability of text data. Third, building upon Goffman's idea of participation framework and conversation analysts' critical examination of it, this paper states that it is a crucial task to elucidate how writers and readers form participation frameworks around texts. In addressing this issue, I argue for the importance of paying attention to interfaces as both constraints and resources for the practice of writing and reading texts. Fourth, this paper analyzes an Amazon.co.jp review text of an English comedy film and a comment on the review, thereby showing that an analysis of how writers/readers form participation frameworks around texts contributes to the elucidation of the intelligibility of the texts as actions. Finally, my methodological argument contributes to the reconsideration of the relationship between ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, focusing not only on tensions but also on possibilities of collaborations.