Dirty secrets and being ‘strange’: using ethnomethodology to move beyond familiarity

Abstract

The paper is a discussion of my attempt to move beyond familiarity by using ethnomethodologyand the emotional impact of doing so; namely, the feeling of having a 'dirty secret'. As a social work group member interviewing social workers, the process of fieldwork was all too familiar. However, during transcription and analysis, what I had considered to be 'business as usual' was revealed as something more complex. The paper describes how the ethnomethodological notions of being a member, the unique adequacy requirement of methods, and breaching worked to make the familiar strange and became key to my understanding.

‘What is the headspace they are in when they are making those referrals?’Exploring the lifeworlds and experiences of health and social care practitioners undertaking risk work within the Prevent Strategy

“…For this reason, and given my own background working for a family support service, I feel a certain level of discomfort at the thought that, once produced, this article is no longer in the hands of myself as a researcher; the findings can be taken out of context and used for purposes which I did not intend (Burawoy, 1998, p. 17). In this sense, my concerns resonate with those of Morriss (2016), whose 'insider' account of social work made her feel as if she was betraying the participants by opening them up to the scrutiny of strangers (Morriss, 2016, p. 534).…”

Being Seconded to a Mental Health Trust: The (In)Visibility of Mental Health Social Work

“…The emotional labour of mental health social workers undertaking AMHP work is immense and particularly draining (Gregor, 2010;Morriss, 2015a). Thus, it is imperative that these social workers are supported in their work.…”

“…As a registered MHSW with over ten years' practice experience, I was able to understand the specialised vocabulary, institutional talk and indexical expressions (Garfinkel, 1967) in both the on-going practical accomplishment of the interview interaction and in analysis without recourse to a dictionary or a textbook. Thus, I met what Garfinkel (1967) termed the 'unique adequacy requirement of methods'; namely, the requirement to be a competent practitioner of whatever group of participants is being researched (see Morriss, 2015a).…”

Deploying Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing in Construction

“…This competence is referred to as 'knowing how'; it consists of being able to perform relevant activities within that setting [79]. The weak requirement demands the researcher to become vulgarly competent in a more specialised practice [80]. In this research, the observations and group interviews in Case A and B helped the authors to gain the competence in tolerancing.…”