An investigation into widows' discursive constructions of their families: using Jaber F. Gubrium's ethnomethodology

Abstract

A husband's death damages his family permanently. It will never be the same again. His surviving family needs to reconstruct itself in order to carry on living as a family. This arduous reconstruction is mainly carried out by the widow. When she explains to herself as well as to others why she reconstructs her family in the way she does it, she needs to bring in her discourse the fundamental problematic "What is family?" This problematic is evidently important for developing family intervention strategies in social work. It happens to be the focus of study for Jaber Gubrium, an American Sociologist. Gubrium belongs to the sociological school of ethnomethodology. Harold Garfinkel, the founder of ethnomethodology, never studied the family. Ethnomethodology is deeply concerned with the social construction of reality. Garfinkel developed it as a theory of social action that runs contrary to that of Talcott