Nat, Nick and Kye's preentation for Week 8

1. The Binary Dichotomies especially
concerning the stratifications of
social matrixes…
Nat, Nick & Kye

3. The Social & Moral
Order In Talk

4. Outline
• Documentary of Interpretation – Nat
• Telling the Code – Nick
• Actionable Interaction and the Inevitability of
Interpretation – Kye

5. The documentary method of Interpretation
• “consists of treating an actual appearance as the
document of, as pointing to as standing on
behalf of a presupposed underlying pattern. Not
only is the underlying pattern derived from its
individual documentary evidence, in their turn,
are interpreted on the basis of what is known
about the underlying pattern. Each is used to
elaborate the other.
• Garfinkel 2002 Studies in Ethnomethodology 78

7. People don’t say exactly what they
mean
• “Where can I find “I’m not going to that meeting
that meeting because I am interested in
where I can get participating in the program of half
way house. Im going to that meeting
an overnight
just because I would like to collect
pass” the reward of an overnight pass and
for no other reason. Im not a kiss
VS. ass. Everyone who is in hearing
Weilder, 1974 Language distance should understand that Im
and Social Reality: The not kissing up to staff. I am still
Case of telling the code. conforming to the code.” Etc, etc…
160

8. Codes
• Codes are the way we understand social
interactions. A code can be defined as the rules
of the specific social situation to which they
apply.

10. Codes Continued
• Codes can be either broad or specific rules
depending on the situation.
• Broad codes provide the guidelines or rules for
standard social interaction.
• Specific codes are codes that apply to a
particular social interaction, such as a social
interaction that takes place in a specific location
or with a specific person.

11. Example of a Broad Code – Barney
Stinson’s Bro Code (HIMYM)
Others call it religion, I
Is it okay to hug a bro? If I’m
call it bro Code
invited to his wedding, do I
Violation of
need to bring a gift? Can I
article 41: A Bro
sleep with a bro’s little sister
never cries
or mother

12. Codes continued
• Codes are internal.
• Codes can be both interpretive or descriptive and
generative or constitutive.
• Codes are sense making devices.
• Codes can be applied to a situation either
retroactively or proactively.
• Codes can shape people and people can shape
codes.
• Jimerson, J. &. (2006). Telling the Code of the Street : An Ethnomethodological Ethnography.
Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, p.28.

13. Exceptions
• Exceptions to codes can exist where although the
codes that apply to the situation require or at
least expect a specific response, that response is
not always given.
• Eg. Someone doesn’t respond to a friendly hello.
• “He mustn't of seen me”

14. Justification of Codes
The situations that develop when codes are broken
make us wonder why the code was broken. We
instinctively want to make sense of the situation
and explain away the behaviour.
Codes are how we make sense of social interactions
and help us justify to ourselves why a code was
broken.

15. Application of Codes
• Codes are applied instinctively and are generally
understood by those within the system that the
code applies to but not always understood by
those on the outside.
• Sometimes though a code is not even understood
by the person who is applying it.

16. Summary of Codes
• In a sense the ability to understand and act
within the social code of a particular situation is
the ability to have the appropriate social skills
for the situation.

17. It's Kye's Turn!
Topics:
1. Actionable interaction.
2. “The inevitability of interpretation.”
3. The social and moral order of talk.

18. Actionable Interaction
“Telling the code” creates a social reality.
→ WE HAVE TO UNDERSTAND.
Codes shape action, but also used to make sense of
action.
→ Produced in a way that determines their own
intelligibility.

19. The Inevitability of Interpretation
This ties in to the documentary method. In
essence, if something strange happens within
your own inter-actionable social reality, you try
to interpret the meaning behind their action.

20. The Social Order of Talk
'Codes', 'social facts' and other influences on action
and behaviour within social realities form social
ties or place individuals within a collective social
hierarchy.
→Remember Nick's “Bro Code”?
Codes carry a level of instruction for interpreting
these social orders.

21. The Moral Order of Talk
When something wrong occurs in a social
interaction, blame is placed upon human
participants.
What just happened with Natalie?
→ Were you thinking, “why me?”
Time for a language lesson!
→ 日本語を教えるよ！

22. So, to Finish...
Accountings of social action are methods of giving and receiving
embedded instructions for seeing and describing a social order. The
interpersonal existence of social orders and their availability to
perception and description is the achievement of the various methods
entailed in an accounting of social action. [pp.172]
Wieder, DL 1974, 'Telling the code', in Ethnomethodology: Selected Readings, Penguin
Education, Hardmondsworth, pp. 144-172