First published in 1985, this book gives an intimate account of the cultural-political conflict between Australian Aboriginal people and Anglo-Australians, presenting the Australian social world from the perspective of the Aboriginal person. Adopting a rigorous ethnomethodological analysis and the techniques of ethnolinguistics, Liberman looks at the interactional detail of the everyday life of traditionally oriented Australian Aboriginals. He uses tape transcripts of actual interaction to identify chief characteristics of Aboriginal social life. Liberman goes on to show how differences in systems of interaction have influenced relations between Australian Aboriginals and Anglo-Australians. With its account of the politics of cultural conflict in a multi-cultural environment, this book is an apt extension of ethnomethodological issues to political concerns. It also exposes Aboriginal perceptions of Anglo-Australian/Aboriginal interaction to a degree not previously achieved in any sociological or anthropological study. As such, this book will be a valuable case study to students of social anthropology, race relations, intercultural communication and sociolinguistics.

First published in 1985, this book gives an intimate account of the cultural-political conflict between Australian Aboriginal people and Anglo-Australians, presenting the Australian social world from the perspective of the Aboriginal person. Adopting a rigorous ethnomethodological analysis and the techniques of ethnolinguistics, Liberman looks at the interactional detail of the everyday life of traditionally oriented Australian Aboriginals. He uses tape transcripts of actual interaction to identify chief characteristics of Aboriginal social life. Liberman goes on to show how differences in systems of interaction have influenced relations between Australian Aboriginals and Anglo-Australians. With its account of the politics of cultural conflict in a multi-cultural environment, this book is an apt extension of ethnomethodological issues to political concerns. It also exposes Aboriginal perceptions of Anglo-Australian/Aboriginal interaction to a degree not previously achieved in any sociological or anthropological study. As such, this book will be a valuable case study to students of social anthropology, race relations, intercultural communication and sociolinguistics.

Husserl's Criticism of Reason, With Ethnomethodological Specifications marshals some of the central ideas of phenomenology for use in empirical studies of naturally occurring ordinary interaction. At the same time, Liberman outlines ways that concrete ethnomethodological studies of philosophical thinking and philosophers' work can extend Edmund Husserl's criticism of reasoning by providing specificities that Husserl never furnished. Liberman develops and applies such phenomenological ideas as the limits of apophantic reasoning and logocentrism, the benefits of aporias and negative dialectics, and theLebenswelt origins of meaning. For phenomenologists, he offers clear summaries of the most vital notions that ethnomethodologists use to locate and describe the implicit intricacies of the thinking philosophical practitioners who are actively and collaboratively engaged in formal reflections. Liberman not only engages in a dialogue and debate with the major thinkers of the phenomenological and post-phenomenological tradition, including Husserl, Heidegger, Levinas, Merleau-Ponty, and Derrida, he poses some ethnomethodological challenges to contemporary phenomenological thought. These notions are not only developed theoretically, but also illustrated practically with abundant demonstrations and detailed analyses.Husserl's Criticism of Reason is situated within a philosophical anthropological vision of how human beings have been learning how to use the tools of formal analytic reasoning to serve their thinking without suffocating it.