Doing Modernity: Studies in Critical Interactionism

The Wilson-Zimmerman Approach to Social Structure:  Architects of the Santa Barbara School Wayne Martin Mellinger, Ph.D. The collaboration between Thomas P. Wilson and Don H. Zimmerman at UC Santa Barbara produced one of the most profound reconceptualizations of social structure in late 20th-century sociology—one that remains underappreciated outside ethnomethodology and conversation analysis circles. Their achievement, crystallized in the landmark 1991 volume Talk and Social Structure, was not merely to add interaction to existing structural theories, but to invert the entire relationship between structure and action. Where most sociological traditions treat interaction as either determined by structure (functionalism) or as separate from it (micro-sociology), Wilson and Zimmerman demonstrated that social structure exists nowhere else but in the sequential organization of members' practices. This is not a metaphor. It is an empirical claim with methodological teeth. ELLISON HALL A...

A Student's Guide to Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis:  Scholars, Schools, and Intellectual Traditions Wayne Martin Mellinger, Ph.D. Last Updated: November 2025 If you're considering graduate study in ethnomethodology (EM) and conversation analysis (CA), you're entering one of sociology's most rigorous and methodologically distinctive traditions. This guide maps the intellectual landscape: who the key scholars are, where the major programs are located, what the different "schools" emphasize, and how you might navigate this field as a student. What Makes EM/CA Different? Before diving into scholars and programs, understand what makes this tradition distinctive: - Radical empiricism: Only naturally occurring data (recordings) count as evidence - Sequential analysis: Social order emerges turn-by-turn in interaction - Members' methods: Study how participants themselves produce and recognize orderly conduct - No coding: Resist quantitative reduction; ...