If we return to consider how we accomplish the everyday realities of riding a subway car,
visiting a neighbor, or walking down the street, we will find the same process at work. As in
judgments within the legal system, our constructions of the situation influence what rules and
codes of behavior are to be summoned as appropriate to the situation. Suppose that we are
visiting a neighbor to party and drink beer. Our understanding of the nature of the situation will
lead us to invoke certain rules (e.g., that it is OK to go to the refrigerator to fetch another beer or
to search for a bottle opener in the kitchen drawers), even though these rules might be considered
quite inappropriate on another occasion. The point is that the norms operating in different
situations have to be invoked and defined in the light of our understanding of the context. We
implicitly make many decisions and assumptions about a situation before any norm or rule is
applied. Many of these decisions and assumptions are made quite unconsciously, as a result of
our previous socialization and taken-for-granted knowledge, so that action appears quite
spontaneous. And in most circumstances, the sense-making process or justification for action
will occur only if the behavior is challenged.