Introduction: A Primer on Relativism

Harold Garfinkel gave the title Parsons’ Primer to a manuscript of nine chapters that he wrote from1959 to 1963 to explain the importance of Talcott Parsons’ social theory and the significance of his move toward social interactionism in his later work. In this manuscript Garfinkel both explains Parsons’ developing interactionism in detail and relates it to his own studies in ethnomethodology. The relationship between the two scholars turns out to have been much closer than has been understood.