Re-constituting social praxis: An ethnomethodological analysis of video data in optometry consultations

Abstract

Drawing on an ethnomethodological study of work practices in optometry, this paper provides an illustration of the processes involved in the analysis of video recordings of naturalistic data. The analytic perspective outlined here involves attempting to reconstruct the sense-making resources that are used by participants in real-world settings to constitute the environments they operate within. In this paper, we present a preliminary examination of the ways in which participants in one-to-one optometry consultations interactionally establish the readiness of a Distance Vision Test. This analysis is intended to offer an example of how the concern with the sequential organisation of action can be developed into a series of observations for further analysis in relation to a broader data corpus. The discussion that follows provides an overview of the perspective of ethnomethodology and a description of the strategies of analysis used in our project. In these ways, this paper aims to highlight the importance of video as a mechanism to the microanalysis of social praxis. © 2011 Taylor & Francis.