Harold Garfinkel

Harold Garfinkel was an American sociologist and University of California, Los Angeles professor, known for establishing the field of Ethnomethodology. His work was influenced by Alfred Schutz, Emmanuel Levinas, and Martin Heidegger, and he is often associated with the development of Phenomenology and Symbolic Interactionism. Garfinkel's research focused on the study of Social interaction, Social order, and the ways in which individuals create and maintain Social reality through their everyday actions, as seen in the works of Erving Goffman and George Herbert Mead. His ideas have been applied in various fields, including Sociology of knowledge, Anthropology, and Linguistics, with scholars like Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault drawing on his concepts.

● Life and Career

Harold Garfinkel was born in Newark, New Jersey, and grew up in a family of Jewish immigrants from Poland. He studied Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he earned his Bachelor's degree, and later received his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago. During his time at the University of Chicago, Garfinkel was influenced by prominent scholars such as Talcott Parsons, Robert Park, and Erving Goffman. He began his academic career as a professor at Princeton University and later moved to the University of California, Los Angeles, where he spent most of his career, collaborating with scholars like Melvin Pollner and Don Zimmerman. Garfinkel's work was also influenced by his interactions with scholars from other disciplines, including Philosophy and Anthropology, such as Ludwig Wittgenstein and Clifford Geertz.

● Ethnomethodology

Garfinkel's most significant contribution to Sociology is the development of Ethnomethodology, a field of study that focuses on the ways in which individuals create and maintain Social order through their everyday actions. He argued that people use various methods to make sense of their surroundings and to create a sense of Social reality, as seen in the works of Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann. Garfinkel's concept of Ethnomethodology was influenced by the ideas of Alfred Schutz, Emmanuel Levinas, and Martin Heidegger, and has been applied in various fields, including Sociology of knowledge, Anthropology, and Linguistics, with scholars like Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault drawing on his concepts. His work has also been compared to that of Jean-Paul Sartre and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, who also explored the relationship between individuals and their social environment, as seen in the context of Existentialism and Phenomenology.

● Major Works

Some of Garfinkel's most notable works include his book Studies in Ethnomethodology, which is considered a classic in the field of Sociology. In this book, Garfinkel presents a series of case studies that demonstrate how individuals use various methods to create and maintain Social order, as seen in the works of Robert Merton and C. Wright Mills. He also developed the concept of the Breaching experiment, which involves intentionally disrupting Social norms in order to study how individuals respond to and recreate Social reality, a concept that has been applied in the context of Social psychology and Cognitive psychology. Garfinkel's work has been influential in the development of various fields, including Sociology of knowledge, Anthropology, and Linguistics, with scholars like Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar drawing on his concepts.

● Influence and Legacy

Garfinkel's work has had a significant influence on the development of Sociology and other fields, including Anthropology, Linguistics, and Philosophy. His concept of Ethnomethodology has been applied in various areas, including the study of Social interaction, Social order, and Social reality. Scholars such as Melvin Pollner and Don Zimmerman have built on Garfinkel's work, and his ideas have been influential in the development of various fields, including Sociology of knowledge, Anthropology, and Linguistics. Garfinkel's work has also been recognized with various awards, including the Cooley-Mead Award from the American Sociological Association, and has been cited by scholars such as Jurgen Habermas and Niklas Luhmann.

● Critique and Controversy

Despite the significant influence of Garfinkel's work, his ideas have also been subject to critique and controversy. Some scholars have argued that his concept of Ethnomethodology is too narrow, and that it fails to account for the role of Power and Inequality in shaping Social reality, a critique that has been raised by scholars like Herbert Blumer and Charles Wright Mills. Others have argued that Garfinkel's work is too focused on the individual, and that it neglects the importance of Social structure and Institutions in shaping Social order, a critique that has been raised by scholars like Talcott Parsons and Robert K. Merton. However, Garfinkel's work remains an important contribution to the field of Sociology, and his ideas continue to be influential in the development of various fields, including Sociology of knowledge, Anthropology, and Linguistics, with scholars like Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault drawing on his concepts.

Category:Sociologists