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Erving Goffman Analysis

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In the sociology of everyday life there is an increasing focus away from the social facts, big ideas and sociological themes (Goffman, 1986), and instead more focus on the interactions that take place between individuals and groups. One of the more influential individuals in this area is Erving Goffman’s work on the sociology of everyday life (Collins, 2004). His work provides am increasing importance on sociology of the micro level, he does this by looking at the immediate interaction between individuals and groups. Through this he identified that it is society as a whole that makes its demands on our behaviour felt through imposed situations (Goffman, 1983), society is not some manifcation of society’s will on us, but rather embodies the …show more content…

Through acting out these socially expected situations the social reality is also defined. This includes social institutions of family, school and religion that people believe they are taking part in, the setting and the social roles they are part of. It is only when an individual acts in a social interaction that these features are able to exist in the social world (Goffman, 1983). From this we can see that Goffman is a social constructionist. However with the exception of that he sees individuals as having a determinist nature as individuals don’t decide for themselves of how they act out their social role as it is the situation itself that makes the demands compelling individuals to follow these behaviours, these everyday behaviours are also called rituals (Collins, …show more content…

Depending on the social interaction that individuals find themselves in these routine verbal exchanges may be removed without any direct consequences if the situation is perceived as being impersonal, such as a brief commercial transaction at a super market or a dairy or walking someone who is unknown to you, because there is no societal expectation to perform a greeting or a good bye (Goffman, 1983). Alternatively if these greetings are omitted when there is a personal relationship of friendly acquaintanceship, or giving someone the cold shoulder there is a failure by the individual to meet the social expectations of the situation they are in, conveying the sense that the personal relationship is being ignored or downgraded. It is from these rituals individuals are able to gain insight into our character based on statuses and relationships (Goffman,

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