Murtagh2001
| Murtagh2001 | |
|---|---|
| BibType | ARTICLE |
| Key | Murtagh2001 |
| Author(s) | Ged Murtagh |
| Title | Ethnography in Public Space: Competence, Communication and the Research Process |
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| Tag(s) | EMCA, Ethnography, Ethnomethodology, Observation, Public Space, Mobile phone |
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| Year | 2001 |
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| Journal | Ethnographic Studies |
| Volume | 6 |
| Number | |
| Pages | 60-72 |
| URL | Link |
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Abstract
The purpose of this discussion is to consider specific analytical approaches to the study of how gaze, bodily, and spatial orientation is implicated in the organisation of social interaction. The paper discusses some of the findings from a three-month period of ethnographic research investigating the use of mobile phones (and other mobile devices) on train carriages. The purpose behind the research was to attain a sense of the level of ‘social acceptability’ of mobile phone use within these settings. It is proposed that ‘assessing the level of social acceptability’ of mobile phone use in public can be informed by analysing acceptability’ of mobile phone use in public can be informed by analysing patterns of social interaction with these devices in public places. These patterns of social interaction depend on a mutual intelligibility that is produced, accomplished and displayed between participants within the setting. It is submitted that these factors are central to understanding how the ‘rules’ of mobile phone use are constituted as an ongoing practical concern. Moreover, the discussion will aim to highlight these non-verbal aspects of interaction as “invariantly relevant features of interactional settings” (Sudnow 1972, p. 263) where mobile phones are in use.
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