Niklas Woermann: Unnatural Occurrences. Accountability, Reflexivity, and Experiments in the Wild.

Studying situated order in “naturally occurring situations” is the de-facto standard of EM/CA research in several fields. This workshop invites playful questioning of this ethnomethodological naturalism by asking what Unnatural Occurrences might look like and if we can track them down “in the wild” (as some particularly adventurous researchers like to call it). In particular, we will discuss the proposition and early empirical results of what I call Accountability Experiments: video-aided studies of the situated production of accountability by participants of behavioral or field experiments. Paid participants who gave informed consent to being watched and recorded might be particularly dutiful in keeping situated order visibly-rational-and-reportable-for-all-practical-purposes. Needless to say, the “unnatural” situational frame of the experiment will serve them as a resource to make sense of and in the situation. But then using such resources reflexively is a “natural” feature of any situation, which might explain why Garfinkel was much less of a naturalist than his prominent students. Therefore, we will ask if experimental situations offer valuable opportunities to study responses to new media technologies.

The respective zoom link will be sent via the CRC mailing list one week in advance.

In case you do not receive the link or have any other inquiries regarding the events please contact Hendrik Bender