COMMRC 0300 WEEK 1

Ethnomethodology (Garfinkel)

Study of common-sense knowledge and range of procedures by which ordinary members of society make sense of , find ways about in, and act on circumstances in which they find selves (Ways people use knowledge & context to make sense out of life)

Pragmatic

The ability to use communication to achieve various functions of communication: ask questions, inform, etc.

Why study culture?

The best answer is the world is not nearly as "big" and we are not nearly as isolated as we once were.

Hidden Curriculum

The informal and unofficial aspects of culture that people are taught in school or simply living in the culture, lifelong process (Social cues & Body Language)

Symbol System

The organized and particular ways symbols are arranged to make sense in culture.

Demonstration 1: Breaching the Congruence of Relevances (Garfinkel Example)

The subject was telling the experiment, member of the subject's car pool, about having had a flat tire while going to work the previous day. (s): "I had a flat tire." (e): "What do you mean, you had a flat tire?" (assuming someone know what you are talking about)

Rules only govern ___________ never thoughts, feelings, or attitudes.

behaviors

Children's success in learning the complex communicative system is integrally related to their ________________ development.

cognitive

Rules are contextual. They do not ___________________________.

function in all situations

2 Ways to Study Culture

• Emic approach (interpretative, from within) • Etic approach (as observer)

Reasons for Increased Intercultural Exchange

• New Technologies • Globalization of the Economy • Change in immigration patterns

Semantic

Refers to the minimal units of meaning, morphemes

Demonstration 4: Breaching the Grasp of "What Anyone Knows" to be Correct Grounds of Action of a Real Social World (Garfinkel Example)

Challenging medical student's view of an medical interview

____________ can be broken; ______ cannot be broken.

Rules; laws

Definiton of Culture

"An historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which (human) communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life."

Family of Rules (i.e. "Be nice") The Rule: The Counter-Rule: Rule about Qualification and Exceptions: Consequences of breaking the Rule: The Rule that tells how the Rule us to be Implemented:

1. Be nice 2. Be bad 3. Except to people who are unkind to you 4. We punish people go around making trouble 5. Speak softly

Characteristics of Culture

1. Learned (not innate) 2. Created 3. Rule Governed (not law governed) 4. Comprise of symbol systems (verbal and nonverbal codes) 5. Changing 6. Distinctive (specific to time and place) 7. Constraining / Ethnocentric

Ethnography

A description of people's culturally distinctive patterns of comm, including use of artifacts, rules, stories, rituals, etc.

Rules

A followable prescription that indicates what behavior is obligated, preferred, or prohibited in certain contexts

Cultural Dichotomies

Distinctions or Differences between Cultures: • Elaborated Codes vs Restrictive Codes • Individualistic vs Collectivists • Low Context vs High Context

Ethnocentrism

Evaluation of other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one's own culture.

Demonstration 2: Breaching the Interchangeability of standpoints (Garfinkel Example)

Experiment enters a store and selects a customer then treats customer as a clerk without giving recognition that the subject was any other person than what the experimenter took him /her to be without indicating that experimenter's treatment was anything different than reasonable and legitimate.

Demonstration 3: Breaching the Expectancy that a Knowledge of a Relationship of Interaction is a Commonly Entertained Scheme of Communication (Garfinkel Example)

Experimenter treat a situation as something that it "obviously" and "realy" was not.

Example of Symbol System with a flag:

Flag represent a nation or group, but the flag at half mast, drape on a coffin or displayed in a triangular case means different things.

What is an example of Culture at any particular time varies from place to place?

Plural of you (you, yous, yinz, y'all) Saying water

Anthropologically Strange

Premise in ethnography that things must be seen as if for the first time.

Phonologic

Refers to learning to perceive and produce phonemes, the minimal sound unit of meaning: speech sounds, sound patterns, and rules of sound organization

Semantic Competency

Refers to the ability to perceive and use the vocabulary of the language and increase with the child's development

Syntactic

Refers to the grammar of language; mastery occurs in developmental stages

Symobol

Verbal and non-verbal codes - the words, actions, and artifacts used by a culture.

Elaborated Codes vs Restrictive Codes

o Elaborated Codes: Explicit, Explain things and less on context o Restrictive Codes: Implicit, Relying on context for its meaningfulness

Characteristics of Rules

o Followable o Prescriptive o Behavior-specific o Contextual

Low Context vs. High Context

o Low context: Explicit communication and information o High context: Implicit communication and nonverbal cues. low context culture- ppl are expected to be direct and say what they mean high context-taught to speak in a less direct way. speech is more ambiguous