Erving Goffman
Encyclopedia
Erving Goffman was a Canadian-born sociologist
and writer
.
The 73rd president of American Sociological Association
, Goffman's greatest contribution to social theory
is his study of symbolic interaction in the form of dramaturgical perspective that began with his 1959 book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
.
In 2007 Goffman was listed as the 6th most-cited intellectual in the humanities
and social sciences by The Times Higher Education Guide, behind Anthony Giddens
and ahead of Jürgen Habermas
.
, Canada
to parents Max Goffman, and his wife, Ann (née Averbach). He was descended from a family of Ukrainian Jews who had joined the great inflow of Russians into Canada just before the beginning of the century. The family later migrated to Dauphin
, in Manitoba
, where his father kept what must have been a fairly successful tailoring business. After three years at high school of Winnipeg
, he became a student at the University of Manitoba
(with chemistry as his ‘major subject’) in the first year of the Second World War, but left off studying to move to Ottawa
to work for the National Film Board of Canada
established by John Grierson. Later he developed his interest in sociology. It was also during this time that he met Dennis Wrong who was a renowned North American sociologist at the time. This meeting worked as a motivation to leave Manitoba
and enroll at the University of Toronto
, where he graduated with a B.A. in sociology and anthropology in 1945. Afterwards, he moved on to the University of Chicago
and received his M.A. and Ph.D for sociology, in 1949 and 1953 respectively. He was the younger brother of actress Frances Bay
.
and Herbert Blumer
in developing his theoretical framework. Goffman studied at the University of Chicago with Everett Hughes
, Gregory Adams, Edward Shils
, and W. Lloyd Warner
. He would go on to pioneer the study of face-to-face interaction, or micro-sociology, elaborate the "dramaturgical approach" to human interaction, and develop numerous concepts that would have a massive influence.
Goffman's greatest contribution to social theory is his formulation of symbolic interaction as dramaturgical perspective in his 1959 book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
, which begins with an epigraph by George Santayana
about masks. Largely working within the tradition of symbolic interactionism
, he greatly elaborated on its central concepts and application. For Goffman, society is not homogeneous. We must act differently in different settings. The context we have to judge is not society at large, but the specific context. Goffman suggests that life is a sort of theater, but we also need a parking lot and a cloak room: there is a wider context lying beyond the face-to-face symbolic interaction. "Throughout Presentation of Self, Goffman seems to perceive the individual as nothing more than a cog responsible for the maintenance of the social world by playing his or her part. In fact, he refers to the self as a 'peg' upon which 'something of a collaborative manufacture will be hung for a time.'"
.
Goffman argues secrecy underlies all social interaction. The dramaturgical approach functions to explain this curious state of affairs. In his own words, the chapter on "Teams" concludes:
A team, then, may be defined as a set of individuals whose intimate co-operation is required if a given projected definition of the situation is to be maintained. A team is a grouping, but it is a grouping not in relation to a social structure or social organization but rather in relation to an interaction or series of interactions in which the relevant definition of the situation is maintained.
We have seen, and will see further, that if a performance is to be effective it will be likely that the extent and character of co-operation that makes this possible will be concealed and kept secret. A team, then, has something of the character of a secret society. The audience may appreciate, of course, that all the members of the team are held together by a bond no member of the audience shares. Thus, for example, when customers enter a service establishment, they clearly appreciate that all employees are different from customers by virtue of this official role. However, the individuals who are on the staff of an establishment are not members of a team by virtue of staff status, but only by virtue of the co-operation which they maintain in order to sustain a given definition of the situation. No effort may be made in many cases to conceal who is on the staff; but they form a secret society, a team, in so far as a secret is kept as to how they are co-operating together to maintain a particular definition of the situation. Teams may be created by individuals to aid the group they are members of, but in aiding themselves and their group in this dramaturgical way, they are acting as a team, not a group. Thus a team, as used herein, is the kind of secret society whose members may be known by non-members to constitute a society, even an exclusive one, but the society these individuals are known to constitute is not the one they constitute by virtue of acting as a team.
Since we all participate on teams we must all carry within ourselves something of the sweet guilt of conspirators. And since each team is engaged in maintaining the stability of some definitions of the situation, concealing or playing down certain facts in order to do this, we can expect the performer to live out his conspiratorial career in some furtiveness.
, then, is the study of organization of social experiences. One example that Goffman used to help people better understand the concept is associating the frame with the concept of a picture frame. He used the picture frame concept to illustrate how people use the frame (which represents structure) to hold together their picture (which represents the context) of what they are experiencing in their life. The most basic frames are called primary frameworks. These frameworks take an experience or an aspect of a scene of an individual that would originally be meaningless and make it to become meaningful. One type of primary framework is natural frameworks, which identifies situations that happened in the natural world, and is completely physical with no human influences. The other type of framework is social framework, which explains events and connects it to humans. An example of natural framework would be the weather and an example of social framework would be the meteorologist who reports people with the weather forecast. Goffman concentrates more on the frameworks and tries to “construct a general statement regarding the structure, or form, of experiences individuals have at any moment of their social life”.
He was also the 73rd president of American Sociological Association
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
.
The 73rd president of American Sociological Association
American Sociological Association
The American Sociological Association , founded in 1905 as the American Sociological Society , is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology by serving sociologists in their work and promoting their contributions to serve society.The ASA holds its...
, Goffman's greatest contribution to social theory
Social theory
Social theories are theoretical frameworks which are used to study and interpret social phenomena within a particular school of thought. An essential tool used by social scientists, theories relate to historical debates over the most valid and reliable methodologies , as well as the primacy of...
is his study of symbolic interaction in the form of dramaturgical perspective that began with his 1959 book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life is a seminal sociology book by Erving Goffman. It uses the imagery of the theatre in order to portray the importance of human – namely, social – action. The book was published in 1959. See dramaturgy for a detailed analysis.-Summary:In the center of the...
.
In 2007 Goffman was listed as the 6th most-cited intellectual in the humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
and social sciences by The Times Higher Education Guide, behind Anthony Giddens
Anthony Giddens
Anthony Giddens, Baron Giddens is a British sociologist who is known for his theory of structuration and his holistic view of modern societies. He is considered to be one of the most prominent modern contributors in the field of sociology, the author of at least 34 books, published in at least 29...
and ahead of Jürgen Habermas
Jürgen Habermas
Jürgen Habermas is a German sociologist and philosopher in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. He is perhaps best known for his theory on the concepts of 'communicative rationality' and the 'public sphere'...
.
Biography
Goffman was born in 1922 in Mannville, AlbertaMannville, Alberta
Mannville is a village in central Alberta, Canada. It is located at the intersection of the Yellowhead Highway and Highway 881, approximately west of Vermilion and east of Edmonton...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
to parents Max Goffman, and his wife, Ann (née Averbach). He was descended from a family of Ukrainian Jews who had joined the great inflow of Russians into Canada just before the beginning of the century. The family later migrated to Dauphin
Dauphin, Manitoba
Dauphin is a small city in Manitoba, Canada, with a population of 7,906 as of 2006. The nearby lake was given the name "Dauphin" by the explorer Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye in 1741 in honour of the heir to the French throne...
, in Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
, where his father kept what must have been a fairly successful tailoring business. After three years at high school of Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
, he became a student at the University of Manitoba
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...
(with chemistry as his ‘major subject’) in the first year of the Second World War, but left off studying to move to Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
to work for the National Film Board of Canada
National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...
established by John Grierson. Later he developed his interest in sociology. It was also during this time that he met Dennis Wrong who was a renowned North American sociologist at the time. This meeting worked as a motivation to leave Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
and enroll at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
, where he graduated with a B.A. in sociology and anthropology in 1945. Afterwards, he moved on to the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
and received his M.A. and Ph.D for sociology, in 1949 and 1953 respectively. He was the younger brother of actress Frances Bay
Frances Bay
Frances Bay was a U.S.-based Canadian character actress, best known for playing quirky, elderly women on film and television...
.
Goffman as a sociologist
Along with many other sociologists of his cohort, Goffman was heavily influenced by George Herbert MeadGeorge Herbert Mead
George Herbert Mead was an American philosopher, sociologist and psychologist, primarily affiliated with the University of Chicago, where he was one of several distinguished pragmatists. He is regarded as one of the founders of social psychology and the American sociological tradition in general.-...
and Herbert Blumer
Herbert Blumer
Herbert George Blumer was an American sociologist. Continuing the work of George Herbert Mead, he named and developed the topic of symbolic interactionism. According to Blumer himself, his main post-graduate scholarly interests were symbolic interactionism and methodological problems...
in developing his theoretical framework. Goffman studied at the University of Chicago with Everett Hughes
Everett Hughes
Everett Cherrington Hughes was an American sociologist best known for his work on ethnic relations, work and occupations and the methodology of fieldwork. His take on sociology was, however, very broad...
, Gregory Adams, Edward Shils
Edward Shils
Edward Shils was a Distinguished Service Professor in the Committee on Social Thought and in Sociology at the University of Chicago and reputedly an influential sociologist. He was known for his research on the role of intellectuals and their relations to power and public policy...
, and W. Lloyd Warner
W. Lloyd Warner
William Lloyd Warner was a pioneering anthropologist noted for applying the techniques of his discipline to contemporary American culture.-Career at Harvard:...
. He would go on to pioneer the study of face-to-face interaction, or micro-sociology, elaborate the "dramaturgical approach" to human interaction, and develop numerous concepts that would have a massive influence.
Goffman's greatest contribution to social theory is his formulation of symbolic interaction as dramaturgical perspective in his 1959 book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life is a seminal sociology book by Erving Goffman. It uses the imagery of the theatre in order to portray the importance of human – namely, social – action. The book was published in 1959. See dramaturgy for a detailed analysis.-Summary:In the center of the...
, which begins with an epigraph by George Santayana
George Santayana
George Santayana was a philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. A lifelong Spanish citizen, Santayana was raised and educated in the United States and identified himself as an American. He wrote in English and is generally considered an American man of letters...
about masks. Largely working within the tradition of symbolic interactionism
Symbolic interactionism
Symbolic Interaction, also known as interactionism, is a sociological theory that places emphasis on micro-scale social interaction to provide subjective meaning in human behavior, the social process and pragmatism.-History:...
, he greatly elaborated on its central concepts and application. For Goffman, society is not homogeneous. We must act differently in different settings. The context we have to judge is not society at large, but the specific context. Goffman suggests that life is a sort of theater, but we also need a parking lot and a cloak room: there is a wider context lying beyond the face-to-face symbolic interaction. "Throughout Presentation of Self, Goffman seems to perceive the individual as nothing more than a cog responsible for the maintenance of the social world by playing his or her part. In fact, he refers to the self as a 'peg' upon which 'something of a collaborative manufacture will be hung for a time.'"
Works
Goffman wrote the following works: Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates, Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience, Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-to-Face Behavior, Forms of Talk and many other books and essays. Many of his works form the basis for the sociological and media studies concept of framingFraming (social sciences)
A frame in social theory consists of a schema of interpretation — that is, a collection of anecdotes and stereotypes—that individuals rely on to understand and respond to events. In simpler terms, people build a series of mental filters through biological and cultural influences. They use these...
.
Asylums
In 1961, Goffman published the book Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates which was one of the first sociological examinations of the social situation of mental patients, the hospital. The book includes four essays: Characteristics of Total Institutions (1957), The Moral Career of the Mental Patient (1959), The Underlife of a Public Institution: A Study of Ways of Making Out in a Mental Hospital, The Medical Model and Mental Hospitalization: Some Notes on the Vicissitudes of the Tinkering Trades. In Asylums, Goffman is mainly engrossed with the details of having been hospitalized to a psychiatric hospital and the nature and effects of the process he defines as ‘institutionalization’. He describes how the institutionalisation process socialises people into the role of a good patient, someone ‘dull, harmless and inconspicuous’, which in turn reinforces notions of chronicity in severe mental illness.The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
This was Goffman’s first and most famous book, for which he received the American Sociological Association’s MacIver award in 1961. It was also the first book to treat face-to-face interaction as a subject to study in the sociological aspect. Goffman treated it as a kind of report in which he frames out the theatrical performance that applies to face-to-face interactions. He believed that when an individual comes in contact with other people, that individual will attempt to control or guide the impression that others might make of him by changing or fixing his or her setting, appearance and manner. At the same time, the person that the individual is interacting with is trying to form and obtain information about the individual. Goffman also believed that all participants in social interactions are engaged in certain practices to avoid being embarrassed or embarrassing others. This led to Goffman’s dramaturgical analysis. Goffman saw a connection between the kinds of acts that people put on in their daily life and theatrical performances. In social interaction, like in theatrical performance there is a front region where the “actors” (individuals) are on stage in front of the audiences. This is where positive aspect of the idea of self and desired impressions are highlighted. There is a back region or stage which can also be considered as a hidden or private place where the individual can be themselves and get rid of their role or identity in society.Goffman argues secrecy underlies all social interaction. The dramaturgical approach functions to explain this curious state of affairs. In his own words, the chapter on "Teams" concludes:
A team, then, may be defined as a set of individuals whose intimate co-operation is required if a given projected definition of the situation is to be maintained. A team is a grouping, but it is a grouping not in relation to a social structure or social organization but rather in relation to an interaction or series of interactions in which the relevant definition of the situation is maintained.
We have seen, and will see further, that if a performance is to be effective it will be likely that the extent and character of co-operation that makes this possible will be concealed and kept secret. A team, then, has something of the character of a secret society. The audience may appreciate, of course, that all the members of the team are held together by a bond no member of the audience shares. Thus, for example, when customers enter a service establishment, they clearly appreciate that all employees are different from customers by virtue of this official role. However, the individuals who are on the staff of an establishment are not members of a team by virtue of staff status, but only by virtue of the co-operation which they maintain in order to sustain a given definition of the situation. No effort may be made in many cases to conceal who is on the staff; but they form a secret society, a team, in so far as a secret is kept as to how they are co-operating together to maintain a particular definition of the situation. Teams may be created by individuals to aid the group they are members of, but in aiding themselves and their group in this dramaturgical way, they are acting as a team, not a group. Thus a team, as used herein, is the kind of secret society whose members may be known by non-members to constitute a society, even an exclusive one, but the society these individuals are known to constitute is not the one they constitute by virtue of acting as a team.
Since we all participate on teams we must all carry within ourselves something of the sweet guilt of conspirators. And since each team is engaged in maintaining the stability of some definitions of the situation, concealing or playing down certain facts in order to do this, we can expect the performer to live out his conspiratorial career in some furtiveness.
Interaction Ritual
This book is a collection of six of Goffman’s essays; the first four essays were published around the 1950s, the fifth is published in 1964, and the last essay was to finish the collection. His six essays are “On Face-work”, “Embarrassment and Social Organization”, “The Nature of Deference and Demeanor”, “Alienation from Interaction”, "Mental Symptoms and Public Order” and “Where the Action Is”. Goffman's first essay, “On Face-work, focused on the concept of face, which is the positive image of self that individuals have when interacting with others. Goffman believed that face “as a sociological construct of interaction, is neither inherent in nor permanent aspect of the person”. Once an individual gives out a positive self image of themselves to others they then feel a need to keep or live up to that set image. When individuals are inconsistent with how they project themselves in society, they risk being embarrassed or discredited, therefore the individual remains consistently guarded, making sure that they do not show themselves in an unfavorable way to others.Frame Analysis
This book was Goffman's way of trying to explain how conceptual frames structure the individual’s perception of the society; therefore, this book is about organization of experiences rather than organization of society. Frames organize the experiences and guide action for the individual and/or for everyone. Frame analysisFrame analysis
Frame analysis is a multi-disciplinary social science research method used to analyze how people understand situations and activities...
, then, is the study of organization of social experiences. One example that Goffman used to help people better understand the concept is associating the frame with the concept of a picture frame. He used the picture frame concept to illustrate how people use the frame (which represents structure) to hold together their picture (which represents the context) of what they are experiencing in their life. The most basic frames are called primary frameworks. These frameworks take an experience or an aspect of a scene of an individual that would originally be meaningless and make it to become meaningful. One type of primary framework is natural frameworks, which identifies situations that happened in the natural world, and is completely physical with no human influences. The other type of framework is social framework, which explains events and connects it to humans. An example of natural framework would be the weather and an example of social framework would be the meteorologist who reports people with the weather forecast. Goffman concentrates more on the frameworks and tries to “construct a general statement regarding the structure, or form, of experiences individuals have at any moment of their social life”.
Awards
During his lifetime he was awarded the following:- Doctor of Laws (LL.D.), University of ManitobaUniversity of ManitobaThe University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...
, 1976 - Guggenheim FellowshipGuggenheim FellowshipGuggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
, 1977–78 - In Medias ResIn medias resIn medias res or medias in res is a Latin phrase denoting the literary and artistic narrative technique wherein the relation of a story begins either at the mid-point or at the conclusion, rather than at the beginning In medias res or medias in res (into the middle of things) is a Latin phrase...
, International Prize for Communicating, 1978 - Doctor of Hebrew Literature/Letters (D.H.L.), University of ChicagoUniversity of ChicagoThe University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, 1979 - Mead-Cooley Award in social psychologySocial psychologySocial psychology is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. By this definition, scientific refers to the empirical method of investigation. The terms thoughts, feelings, and behaviors include all...
- Forms of Talk was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle award, 1981
Institutions
During his career Goffman served at the following institutions:- University of ChicagoUniversity of ChicagoThe University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, Division of Social Sciences, ChicagoChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, assistants, 1952–53, resident associate, 1953–54 - National Institute of Mental HealthNational Institute of Mental HealthThe National Institute of Mental Health is one of 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health...
, Bethesda, MarylandBethesda, MarylandBethesda is a census designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House , which in turn took its name from Jerusalem's Pool of Bethesda...
, visiting scientist, 1954–57 - University of California, BerkeleyUniversity of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, assistant professor, 1958–59,professor, 1959–62, professor of sociology, 1962–68 - University of PennsylvaniaUniversity of PennsylvaniaThe University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
, Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin Professor of Anthropology and Sociology, 1969–82
He was also the 73rd president of American Sociological Association
American Sociological Association
The American Sociological Association , founded in 1905 as the American Sociological Society , is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology by serving sociologists in their work and promoting their contributions to serve society.The ASA holds its...
List of major works
- 1959: The Presentation of Self in Everyday LifeThe Presentation of Self in Everyday LifeThe Presentation of Self in Everyday Life is a seminal sociology book by Erving Goffman. It uses the imagery of the theatre in order to portray the importance of human – namely, social – action. The book was published in 1959. See dramaturgy for a detailed analysis.-Summary:In the center of the...
, University of Edinburgh Social Sciences Research Centre. ISBN 978-0-14-013571-8. Anchor Books edition - 1961: Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other InmatesAsylums (book)Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates is a book written by sociologist Erving Goffman in 1961. Asylums was a key text in the development of deinstitutionalisation. The book is one of the first sociological examinations of the social situation of mental...
. New York, Doubleday. ISBN 0140137394 - 1961: Encounters: Two Studies in the Sociology of Interaction - Fun in Games & Role Distance. Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill.
- 1963: Behavior in Public Places: Notes on the Social Organization of Gatherings, The Free Press. ISBN 0029119405
- 1963: Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0671622447
- 1967: Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-to-Face Behavior. Anchor Books. ISBN 0394706315
- 1969: Strategic Interaction. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania PressUniversity of Pennsylvania PressThe University of Pennsylvania Press is a university press affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
. ISBN 034502804X - 1971: Relations in Public: Microstudies of the Public Order. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 0061319570
- 1974: Frame analysis: An essay on the organization of experience. London: Harper and Row. ISBN 978-0-06-090372-5
- 1979: Gender Advertisements, Macmillian. ISBN 0061320765
- 1981: Forms of Talk, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania PressUniversity of Pennsylvania PressThe University of Pennsylvania Press is a university press affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
. ISBN 978-0-8122-7790-6
See also
- Labeling theoryLabeling theoryLabeling theory is closely related to interactionist and social construction theories. Labeling theory was developed by sociologists during the 1960's. Howard Saul Becker's book entitled Outsiders was extremely influential in the development of this theory and its rise to popularity...
- Social construction
- StigmaSocial stigmaSocial stigma is the severe disapproval of or discontent with a person on the grounds of characteristics that distinguish them from other members of a society.Almost all stigma is based on a person differing from social or cultural norms...
- InteractionismInteractionismIn sociology, interactionism is a theoretical perspective that derives social processes from human interaction. It is the study of individuals and how they act within society. Interactionist theory has grown in the latter half of the twentieth century and has become one of the dominant...
Further reading
- Dirda, Michael (2010). Waiting for Goffman, New York : Lapham's Quarterly Vol 3 No 4. (ISSN 1935-7494).
- Ditton, Jason (1980). The View of Goffman, New York : St. Martin’s Press (ISBN 0312845981).
- Drew, Paul & Wootton, Anthony (1988). “Erving Goffman : Exploring the Interaction Order” . Boston : Northeastern University Press. (ISBN 1-55553-037-0).
- Manning, Philip (1992). Erving Goffman and Modern Sociology, Stanford, CA. : Stanford University Press. (ISBN 0-8047-2025-8, ISBN 0-8047-2026-6).
- Scheff, Thomas (2006). “Goffman Unbound! : A New Paradigm for Social Science”, Boulder, CL. : Paradigm Publishers. (ISBN 1-59451-195-0).
- Trevino, A. Javier (2003). Goffman’s Legacy, Lanham, Md. : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. (ISBN 0742519775, ISBN 0-7425-1978-3).