Course:SOCI1110/Harold Garfinkle

Harold Garfinkel

American Sociologist, Ethomethodologist, as well as a Professor at the University of California. (October 29,1917 - April 21, 2011)

Biography

Harold Garfkinel was born in Newmark, New Jersey on October 29, 1917. Growing up he lived in Newmark, where his father, Abraham, had a local business selling housewares. Instead of following in his father's footsteps and taking over the family business, he decided to go to the University of Newmark to study business, and accounting. He later developed a deep interest in sociology, and moved on to study that instead. He then went to the University of North Carolina, and earned his master's degree in 1932. In the summer of 1942 Garfinkel started a field study of Bastrop, Texas, and started sociological research for the Army and Airforce in Gulfport Field, Mississippi from 1942-1946. From 1951 - 1953 he held a high ranking position at Princeton University. By the time Garfinkel was 35 years old he had written more than twelve impressive manuscripts, all before he earned his PhD at Harvard in the summer of 1952. Garfinkel finally retired from in 1987, and became a professor emeritus in sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Garfinkel died at the age of 93, in his home in Pacific Palisades, California, due to congestive heart failure. He was survived by his wife, Arlene, his daughter, Leah, and his son, Mark.

Influences

Garfinkel was influenced by Talcott Parsons, and Alfred Schütz. Parsons was a sociologist of the classical tradition, Garfinkel was very fascinated by his research on social order. Schutz was a European scholar which started to introduce Garfinkel into newly important ideas in social theory, psychology and phenomenology. [1]

Major Accomplishments

The term Ethnomethodology was invented and created by Harold Garfinkel in 1954. Ethenomethodology examines how human beings communicate while interacting with one another. Garfinkel is well known for his published book called "Studies in Ethnomethodology" in 1967. Which was followed by unpublished articles in two volumes called "Seeing Sociologically" and "Ethnomethodology's Program."

The World Around Him

Harold Garfinkel lived through not only both world wars, but other wars as well. This situates him in many interesting points in history. Even though Garfinkel could not participate in World War One because he was just a baby, by the time World War Two occurred he had become an adult. He enlisted in the military, and conducted sociological research for the Army and Air Force in Gulfport Field, Mississippi, from 1942-1946. As a Jewish man dedicated to racial justice, Garfinkel took his work for the military very seriously. The Second World War actually ended up uniting social scientists. Since the study of social sciences was completely put on hold in occupied Europe, some of Europe's scientists had come to join the research in America. In 1939, the American Sociological Association and its higher ups started to aid the war and peace efforts in both institutional and substantive ways. This helped sociology become a "well-respected and unified science."(Rawls, 2013) The world Garfinkel grew up and lived in was full of uncertainty, and fear. The fact that he had such a strong interest in sociology compared to bussiness makes a lot of sense once a person considers the social chaos that was happening all around him. To try to make sense and help change the social world Garfinkel probably realized that he had to study, and immerse himself in it.

Relevant World Events Durring Garfinkel's Life

1917 - America enters WWI
1918 - WWI ends
1931 - Great Depression at its worst, more that 25% of Americans unemployed
1939 - WWII begins in Europe
1941 - Pearl Habour is attacked
America joins the WWII
1945 - America drops first atomic bomb on Japan
WWII ends
1949 - NATO is created
1950 - Start of the Korean war
1961 - Vietnam war begins
Berlin Wall is built
1953 - Vietnam war ends
1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis
1963 - Present Kennedy is assassinated
1965 - People begin protesting war
Malcom X is assassinated
1966 - People rioting over race
1967 - People are still rioting over race
Vietnam war becomes even more intense
1973 - Vietnam war ends

Major Contributions

Harold Garfinkel has made many contributions to the social sciences. A Major contribution he has made is creating the term ethnomethodology. Ethnomethology is a way to try to study the methods that people create and put together the parts of everyday life in any real, and not hypothetical setting.

References

Bradley, M. (2009). Vietnam at war. New York: Oxford University Press.

Department, G. R. (2011, June 8). 12 September 2001: America under attack. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/from-the-archive-blog/2011/jun/08/guardian190-september-11th-attacks-9-11

Garfinkel, H. (1964). Studies of the Routine Grounds of Everyday Activities. Social Problems, 11(3), 225-250. doi:1. Retrieved from

  http://www.jstor.org/stable/798722 doi:1

History.com (2009). Korean war - facts & summary. history.com. Retrieved from http://www.history.com/topics/korean-war

Lynch, M. (2011, July 13). Harold Garfinkel obituary. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/jul/13/harold-garfinkel- obituary

Maynard, D. W. (2012). Memorial essay: Harold Garfinkel (1917-2011): A sociologist for the ages. Symbolic Interaction, 35(1), 88–96. doi:10.1002/symb.4

US history Timeline: 1900 - 2000. (1950). Retrieved October 24, 2016, from http://faculty.washington.edu/qtaylor/a_us_history/1900_2000_timeline.htm

Rawls, A. W. (2013). The early years, 1939-1953: Garfinkel at north Caroline, Harvard and Princeton. Journal of Classical Sociology, 13(2). 303-312. doi:10.1177/146879x13477292

Weber, B. (2014, September 8). Harold Garfinkel, a common-sense sociologist, dies at 93. U.S. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/04/us/04garfinkel.html?_r=0

Garfinkel, H., & Rawls, A. (2015). Toward A sociological theory of information. Retrieved from https://books.google.ca/books?id=OwXvCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT109&lpg=PT109&dq=Harold+garfinkel+bastrop+texas&source=bl&ots=rUJhdW0uZs&sig=M5fBaxsLvh1oFVH7rnSliDALKs8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjv7_Sj4_HPAhUfHGMKHVErAXoQ6AEIHzAB#v=onepage&q=Harold%20garfinkel%20bastrop%20texas&f=false In-line Citation: (Garfinkel & Rawls, 2015)

Phenomenology online. (2011). Retrieved October 23, 2016, from http://www.phenomenologyonline.com/scholars/garfinkel-harold/