Ethnomethodological Evidence Section 1 3 2

Generated: October 23, 2025 at 04:55 AM

Chapter 1 Computational Analysis

Evidence IDs for Section 1.3.2: Ethnomethodological Foundations

Generated: 2025-01-24 Purpose: Evidence for Garfinkel’s ethnomethodology - how Reddit users accomplish social order through everyday practices

1. HIGH-UPVOTE COMMUNITY VALIDATION POSTS

Examples of upvoting creating community coherence through collective agreement

Already in chapter:

  • comment_m2993e6 (r/CUNY, score: 224) - Defense of CUNY as engine of social mobility
  • comment_m3vaq7w (r/CUNY, score: 127) - Previously documented

New evidence found:

  1. comment_mf5zmc7 (r/CUNY, score: 198)
    • Thread: NU Gov Kathy Hochul Orders CUNY to Remove Palestinian Studies Job Posting
    • Significance: Community validation of academic freedom stance
    • Character count: 149
  2. comment_m9mqm92 (r/CUNY, score: 183)
    • Thread: Trump suspends Federal loans and Federal grants
    • Text: “that would make the majority of CUNY cooked tbh- a lot of us depend on SNAP and pell grants to get through college…”
    • Significance: Collective recognition of shared financial vulnerability
  3. comment_mn6ijjb (r/CUNY, score: 181)
    • Thread: Dating in your 20s while at CUNY
    • Text: “remember that women are people. start by treating them like human beings deserving of respect…”
    • Significance: Community correction of social norms
  4. comment_mt07gsi (r/Baruch, score: 172)
    • Thread: Missed Final
    • Text: “This is where you turn your phone off, take your final, and deal with your non-career job afterwards…”
    • Significance: Community enforcement of academic priorities
  5. comment_mna2d85 (r/CUNY, score: 162)
    • Thread: Rejected from every CUNY
    • Text: “You must have messed up severely on some part of the application. Even the worst people I knew got accepted into bcc and bmcc…”
    • Significance: Shared understanding of CUNY accessibility norms
  6. comment_m1f8q5o (r/CUNY, score: 154)
    • Thread: Rate My Professor discussion
    • Text: “Honestly, every time I’ve decided not to listen to rate my professor I’ve been reminded that I should’ve…”
    • Significance: Validation of crowd-sourced knowledge systems
  7. comment_ljsi5h9 (r/CUNY, score: 153)
    • Thread: Bathroom break rules
    • Text: “I understand no bathroom breaks during exams but during regular lectures/lab is insane. Please report this…”
    • Significance: Collective resistance to unreasonable policies
  8. comment_lpw2t6j (r/CUNY, score: 150)
    • Thread: CUNY Chancellor’s email about Gaza
    • Text: “absolutely disgusting how biased CUNY is honestly… so much for ‘free speech’…”
    • Significance: Shared critique of institutional hypocrisy
  9. comment_mb12g0d (r/CUNY, score: 142)
    • Thread: Are we cooked? (political concerns)
    • Text: “OP now is the time to stay focused and push forward… This new administration wants you to give up because they know the power of education…”
    • Significance: Community encouragement and political solidarity

2. ITERATIVE PROBLEM-SOLVING THREADS

Examples of collective knowledge construction through multi-turn interaction

Already in chapter:

  • thread t3_1eaougu (68 comments) - Previously documented
  • thread t3_1m2blqw (30 comments) - Previously documented

New evidence found:

  1. thread t3_1hqkkh0 (r/CUNY, 150 comments, score: 125)
    • Title: ADVICE ON BMCC NURSING PROGRAM ACCEPTANCE + HESI
    • Text: “UPDATING EVERY SEMESTER :) !! currently in: semester 1, spring 2025”
    • Significance: Living document updated each semester, collaborative knowledge building
  2. thread t3_1b9wk7i (r/CUNY, 85 comments, score: 13)
    • Title: How is the city tech nursing program?
    • Significance: Extended discussion about GPA requirements and admission strategies
  3. thread t3_1j6449l (r/Baruch, 75 comments, score: 28)
    • Title: Rejected from Baruch Transfer with a 3.94 GPA
    • Significance: Community troubleshooting unexpected rejection, sharing transfer strategies
  4. thread t3_1k32sbd (r/Baruch, 69 comments, score: 54)
    • Title: Major, Job, Salary
    • Significance: Collaborative career outcome mapping across CUNY system
  5. thread t3_1dkalov (r/CUNY, 67 comments, score: 40)
    • Title: What did you major in? Which college and how much do you make now?
    • Significance: Community-generated employment outcomes database
  6. thread t3_1akbu5y (r/CUNY, 60 comments, score: 623)
    • Title: My Academic Advisor just F***** me
    • Text: “I went to Lehman for a semester before I had a really bad work accident…”
    • Significance: Crisis response with multiple community members offering solutions
  7. thread t3_1jj4o4k (r/HunterCollege, 60 comments, score: 0)
    • Title: How do you guys pass these exams and midterms? NEED HELP PLEASE
    • Significance: Study strategy sharing and collective problem-solving

3. INSIDER KNOWLEDGE/INDEXICALITY

Posts demonstrating context-dependent meaning and CUNY-specific navigation tactics

Already in chapter:

  • comment_ewlyuik - Shopping cart strategy (previously documented)

New evidence with shopping cart trick:

  1. comment_h6uf0nc (r/CUNY, score: 3, 670 chars)
    • Text: “You could swap into another section seamlessly by putting the new section into your shopping cart, going to swap, and swapping your current section for the new one without risking losing your place…”
    • Significance: Detailed technical knowledge of registration system workarounds
  2. comment_k79u1y8 (r/CUNY, score: 3, 278 chars)
    • Text: “It varies from school-to-school when the shopping carts open. What school are you at?”
    • Significance: Campus-specific variation in system mechanics
  3. comment_luhthkp (r/CUNY, score: 2, 485 chars)
    • Text: “Adding to your shopping cart just means you’re pre-selecting your schedule, so when your enrollment appointment comes, you can just click ‘get this schedule’…”
    • Significance: System navigation expertise passed down as practical knowledge

ePermit system navigation:

  1. comment_lwoakv3 (r/CUNY, score: 54)
    • Text: “My brother in christ, have you considered an ePermit? 😐”
    • Significance: Assumption of shared knowledge about inter-CUNY registration
  2. comment_mwyi782 (r/CUNY, score: 28, 311 chars)
    • Text: “what course is the epermit for? ik there’s a class within my major that i’m not allowed to epermit, i must take it at my school…”
    • Significance: Detailed rules knowledge only comprehensible to insiders
  3. comment_mrnfhk9 (r/CUNY, score: 25, 254 chars)
    • Text: “Absolutely don’t give up your BA over a single class. Try E-permitting, look around for professors with high ratings on RMP…”
    • Significance: Integration of multiple CUNY-specific systems (ePermit + RMP)

CUNYfirst navigation hacks:

  1. comment_mxuh7mk (r/CUNY, score: 18, 329 chars)
    • Text: “Bookmark cunyfirst.cuny.edu and only login using that website. If you navigate to cunyfirst using another site or your history url you’ll get a login error…”
    • Significance: Technical workaround for system bugs known only through experience
  2. comment_fqdawzq (r/CUNY, score: 14, 2034 chars)
    • Text: “Professors names especially in the math department are hidden On cunyfirst to prevent people from using rate my professor. They reveal the names 1 week before school starts…”
    • Significance: System gaming and counter-gaming tactics

Other CUNY-specific terminology:

  1. comment_mhy4uzf (r/CUNY, score: 22, 718 chars) - SEEK program
    • Text: “So, SEEK is a program at CUNY where you are technically a student at the college, but only through this program. Meaning, you get a higher aid compared to other college students…”
    • Significance: Program-specific knowledge essential for navigation
  2. comment_ksab2yr (r/CUNY, score: 22, 564 chars) - TAP navigation
    • Text: “The great thing about this program is that it connects you with a (live, human) advisor to navigate the red tape and complications…”
    • Significance: Bureaucratic navigation strategies

Summary of Ethnomethodological Significance

These evidence IDs demonstrate three key aspects of Garfinkel’s ethnomethodology in action:

  1. Reflexive accountability: High-upvote posts show how members make their reasoning visible and accountable to others through voting patterns

  2. Documentary method: Iterative threads reveal how students collectively construct interpretive schemes for understanding CUNY’s institutional practices

  3. Indexical expressions: Shopping cart tricks, ePermit strategies, and CUNYfirst workarounds are only meaningful within the specific context of CUNY’s technical and bureaucratic systems

The evidence shows Reddit functioning as a site where CUNY students accomplish social order through:

  • Collective validation of shared experiences (upvoting as accountability)
  • Collaborative problem-solving (threads as knowledge construction)
  • Transmission of tacit knowledge (system navigation hacks)

Total new evidence IDs added: 29

  • 9 high-upvote validation posts
  • 7 iterative problem-solving threads
  • 13 insider knowledge examples

All evidence demonstrates members’ methods for accomplishing the practical work of being a CUNY student.

Evidence References (22 items) ▶

Comments (22)