Abstract

This article analyzes and provides background for Garfinkel's article «The Red». While that paper was prepared as an independent article to be published in a journal - like most of Garfinkel's work requires being understood in the context of his overall position. The Red comprises just one part of a theory of social objects that Garfinkel began crafting at Harvard in 1946. The Red is the third in a series of articles and manuscripts from this period. All three of these early manuscripts are reproduced in the new second edition of Studies in Ethnomethodology to be published by Paradigm Publishers in 2012.