Фоновото знание като техническа загадка: етнометодологически изследвания на общоприетото знание
The Background as a Technical Mystery: Ethnomethodological Studies of Common Sense

Summary/Abstract: The paper brings up the question of studying background and tacit knowledge in the light of ethnomethodological experiments. More speci-fically, the experiments with the documentary method of interpretation are examined, arriving at the conclusion that they only lead to the problem of background knowledge and of „common schemes of interpretation“ as part of a „common culture“ without explaining it, as well as to a theory of common understanding using grammatical rules of correspondence. This theory is later reconsidered in the light of the experiments describing shared agreement, where the latter is not conceived as a „correct correspondence“, but as a process or a members’ method. Garfinkel’s studies of background understandings in his series of „breaching experiments“ are being discussed. The conclusion is made that the background can be studied by means of description of the ethno-methods of understanding and agreement, which is an endless technical problem. The study reaches the conclusion that the background could not be described regarding its content, but only regarding its function, and that it is axiomatic in character. These conclusions are compared to John Searle’s findings on the Background of intenionality, namely that it is pre-intentional, it consists of practical knowledge, and is contingent.

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