El Sistema Nacional de Nivelación y Admisión 2.1 La problemática

The original intention, of an analysis based on the inter­ pretation of spoken accounts, is still valid under these circumstances but no longer sufficient* Allowance has now to be made for the part played by any other cultural characteristic which may be understood to be significant in the regulation of social order* Kotler and Zaltman

27

(1971) acknowledge that

“In spite of the confusing jumble of definitions, the core idea of marketing lies in the exchange process* Marketing does not occur unless there are two or more parties* each with somethino to exchange and both able to carry out communications and

distribution”

Some idea of the interplay between social and commercial exchange can be gathered from a remark made by the head of a small company

which produces films for the advertising industry*

“Oust you and me, dear, we'll fly away somewhere together and •• It's their little fantasy* They can think and say what they like and if sex comes into it, well ••• that's all right because

it's harmless and if they're not paying attention then I'm in control and they're doing business on my terms*”

This story was told with just a hint of the deliberate seductive­ ness that would be used to unsettle any executive who was foolish

enough to underestimate the woman in question by taking her at face value* liihilst the respondent and I have known each other as friends for some time, she nevertheless made it apparent that variations on the same technique would also be used to protect her business interests from any untoward enquiries by such as myself*

The incident was enough to remind me that the investigative process is itself an inseparable part of the culture in which marketing managers operate* This i3 in no way denied by the many conversations which took place within the confines of executive's own offices for although work did occasionally intrude, it is significant that

these respondents should underpin their observations by attempting to exclude their own organisational culture* Whilst the apparent desire to maintain two distinct areas of control may be seen to suggest an unusual degree of ambiguity in marketing manager's view of themselves, the manipulation of physical space is a cultural commonplace® As

28

Giddens (1982) points out

"Social practices occur not just as transformations of a virtual order of differences (Wittgenstein's rules) and differences in timefcepetition), but also in physical space."

There were, however, some bolder spirits who insisted on a more direct involvement in their day-to-day affairs. One such case was that of a Technical Sales Manager, meaning machine salesman, who worked for a Fork Lift Truck Agency. Whilst the day spent out on his 'round' will be dealt with in more detail elsewhere, it is enough to note that the excursion was both entertaining and instructive, considerations which no doubt predisposed me towards accepting what I was told. These forms of social conditioning are of unavoidable importance if only because of the uncertainty involved in accrediting similar information presented in a less personable way. It is, of course, also possible that the salesman may have been so good at his job as to be capable of "selling" a story line without appearing to do so.

This possibility encapsulates the more than thorny issue of whether or not sociologists should seek to distance themselves from

29

those they are investigating. Garfinkel (1967) appears to be

arguing for some sort of ’objectivity1 that will allow the social scientist to abstract "formal properties" "from within actual settings." He

believes that ethnomethodological studies should consist of

"tasks of learning how members' actual, ordinary activities consist of methods to make practical actions, practical circumstances, common sense knowledge of social structures and practical sociological analyzeable; and of discovering the formal properties of common place, practical common sense actions, "from within" actual settings. The formal properties obtain

their guarantees from no other source, and in no other way". The alternative viewpoint, that such a degree of abstraction is

30 at best improbable, is presented by Giddens (1977)

"Now we may agree that the social scientist is in and of the social world that he seeks to describe and analyse, in a way which is different from that in which the natural scientist in in and of the world he tries to describe and analyse. But there is an inherent oddity in Garfinkel's view which shows that he cannot escape confronting issues posed by the relation between actors’ and observers' accounts any more than anyone else can. This is easily demonstrated if it is pointed out that ethno- methodology is itself an artful practice that is made account­ able by its practitioners."

None of which does anything to explain ethnomethodologist's apparent practical indifference to the effect, upon actors and

observers, of the nactual settings’1 themselves. Whilst this issue u/ill be raised in the next and eighth chapters, the following incident will give some idea of the importance of "actual settings" to the negot­ iation of everyday reality.

I had been offered a day "on the road" with a Technical Sales

Manager from a Fork Lift Truck Agency and his first call of the day was to a Timber Merchants Yard in North Cheshire. The Sales Manager then suggested that I might lumber about in the yard while he faced the prospect of a conversation with the Plant Manager. That no one in the yard seemed bothered by my meanderings is perhaps best explained by my unremarkable mein and genteely faded clothing for at the time of my visit I was involved in an enforced period of state sponsored participant observation into relative poverty; I was on the 'dole'. My wardrobe was threadbare in the extreme and bore evidence of repeated attempts at mending. It is therefore quite possible that I was seen as a harmless derelict and left to my own affairs. The Technical Sales Manager didn't seem to mind; he thought academics always looked like that. In this instance, however, a mild joke at the expense of The Department of Health and Social Security is being used to raise a

/

x31

serious point. As Lurie (1976) says

"The vocabulary of dress consists of items of clothing and styles of make up, hairdo, body painting, and the like. Occasionally, of course, practical considerations enter into the choice of these items; considerations of comfort, durability, availability or price. Especially in the case of persons of limited wardrobe, an article may be worn mainly because it is warm or rainproof or handy to cover up a wet bathing suit in the same way that persons of limited vocabulary use the phrase "you know" or adjectives like "fantastic." Yet, just with the spoken language, such choices give some information, even if it is only equivalent to the statement "I don't give a hoot in hell what I look like." And there are limits even here. For

instance, most American men, however cold or wet they might be, would not put on a woman's dress."

My rambling about the timber yard was soon interrupted by the Technical Sales Manager who was anxious to be off. As we left, he asked me what I had seen and what I thought of it.

"I didn't get to see everything but they do seem to have a lot of machines already."

’’Don't they just? ••• These miserable bastards buy a fork life truck or two every twelve to eighteen months and they always go for the bargain of the week. They've got propane burners, gas burners and even a battery job or two and as for repairs • • God knowsi Their depreciation schedules must be unworkable and they have to make additional allowances for stacker drivers spilling timber because they never get the chance to learn about their machines. And they never bloody learn ... they fall for the same line every time because they can't afford not to. They don't seem to realise that half the stuff they buy is cheap because the design is 10 years old, the technology's bloody obsolete and the truck will only last for about six years anyway. Modern equipment will last 10 or 12 years and use less fuel doing it but what can you do? Ho w can you sell machines to 'managers' who invest money in being stupid?" The sneering delivery of this l^sl remark seemed to indicate that my informant put mors f*»itir in his ability than in his own job title for the day's signer calls failed to arouse a similar reaction. Even the sale of four trucks, completed that afternoon after weeks of complex negotiations, provoked nothing more than a smile, which have passed for rueful, and a deadpan "it should have been six". Perhaps it should but the drive back to the Agency was very unhurried and the Vivaldi on the previously unused cassetts player may well have been the usual finale to his working day. Of course, it may also be

argued that,on this occasion, the salesman was underlining his obvious delight in his own achievements with the aural equivalent of a 'victory roll.