Description: Phenomenological analyses of the orderliness of naturally occurring collaboration.
Brief description: Kenneth Liberman is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Oregon. His many books include More Studies in Ethnomethodology, also published by SUNY Press.
Review Quotes:
"...highly enjoyable ... This is ethnomethodology at its best ... this brilliant book is a major advance." - Symbolic Interaction
"Highly recommended." - CHOICE
"This book offers some of the liveliest and freshest of all ethnomethodological studies. We see why a busy intersection full of pedestrians, bikes, and autos has smoother traffic flow when participants work out their own coordinating devices than when formal rules are enforced; why people in India who swarm a service gate rather than queuing up or taking turns have an orderly efficiency of their own. How Tibetan debates punctuated by rhythmic handclaps make philosophy more engrossing and deeply communicative than Western content-obsessed debating styles; and why maps never provide complete directions but depend on users sustaining an embodied sense of the terrain. Ken Liberman makes the tradition of phenomenological inquiry as user-friendly as it has ever been." - Randall Collins, Dorothy Swaine Thomas Professor of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania