Disrupting Normalcy

Disrupting Normalcy Definition

Disrupting normalcy is a methodological technique associated with ethnomethodology. It involves deliberately upsetting the normal, taken-for-granted rules that govern everyday situations in order to expose those rules and explore how they work. By breaching the ordinary expectations people rely on without noticing, the researcher makes the hidden order of everyday life visible.

Value and Criticism

The technique illuminates ordinary social life in a revealing way, bringing to the surface the unspoken conventions that normally pass unremarked. It has been criticized, however, for a lack of ethical consideration toward those whose lives are disrupted: being placed in a situation where the normal rules suddenly no longer apply can be psychologically unsettling for the unwitting participants.