Erving Goffman (1922-1982)

Intro

• Humanistic tradition (social interaction)
• Shared cultural meanings that guide indiviual actions
• Interpretive mthod of analysis 
• Wrote "The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life" (1959)

Approach

• Micro sociology- everyday, face to face interaction
• School of symbolic interactionism- interaction between individuals
• Self- respresentations interpreted by others
• Symbols= mannerisms, etc convey meanings= status, etc
• Weber was a major influence on Goffmans work

Main Ideas

• How we represent ourselves to others
• Humans are active and knowledgable creatures
• Interaction Rital: Actors- perform roles, Contacts- how we interact, Encounters- where we interact, Performances- what we are interacting, Celebrations- large groups of people
• We complete a performace- Dramaturlogical approach
• Roles are dependnt…