Objective Measures and Subjective Reports

Abstract

The paper discusses how visual research methods that draw on ethnomethodology and conversation analysis can help sociologists to reveal how optometrists’ assess the clarity of their clients’ distance vision. It argues that the detailed analysis of video-recorded interactions in optometric consultation rooms can help reveal the practical organization of the ‘routine’ work through which optometrists examine and assess their clients’ sight. Save for the contribution of the paper to methodological discussions about the use of visual data for the analysis of the practical work of optometrists, the paper also demonstrates how video-based research can add to recent debates in organizational sociology, workplace studies, and practice theory as well as to discussions about service quality and quality of care in health-service settings.