Abstract
In studies ranging from oracular practices and court proceedings to alternative philosophies, reality disjunctures, and a
family’s work in maintaining the normality of a severely retarded child, Mel Pollner put together something like a cabinet
of curiosities exhibiting the social character of reasoning’s worldly enterprises. At the same time, he felt that ethnomethodology—and,
in particular, ethnomethodological studies of work—had taken a wrong direction, turning away from disciplinary sociology’s
sociological project. This paper, by examining the play of bridge, soccer, checkers, and chess, reconsiders this position
and illustrates some of the peculiarities of a sociology of the witnessable social order.
family’s work in maintaining the normality of a severely retarded child, Mel Pollner put together something like a cabinet
of curiosities exhibiting the social character of reasoning’s worldly enterprises. At the same time, he felt that ethnomethodology—and,
in particular, ethnomethodological studies of work—had taken a wrong direction, turning away from disciplinary sociology’s
sociological project. This paper, by examining the play of bridge, soccer, checkers, and chess, reconsiders this position
and illustrates some of the peculiarities of a sociology of the witnessable social order.
- Content Type Journal Article
- Pages 1-16
- DOI 10.1007/s12108-012-9151-8
- Authors
- Eric Livingston, University of New England, Armidale, Australia
- Journal The American Sociologist
- Online ISSN 1936-4784
- Print ISSN 0003-1232