Skip to main content

ETHNOS_APP

Home • Search • Journals • List 0

Misgivings about Goffman

Bibliographic Data

ID23744444
AuthorsGreg Smith (0000-0002-1886-5550), Michael Hviid Jacobsen (0000-0003-0237-1318)
Year2019
Pages12-29
Publication date2019-03-28
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueCritical and Cultural Interactionism (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.4324/9781315141640-2
OpenAlexW2937530024
ISBN9781315141640
LanguageEN
Citations received4

The purpose of this chapter is to excavate and explore some of the critical potential in the work of Erving Goffman. Even though Goffman is often depicted as an apolitical microsociologist with no genuine understanding of power or social conflict, this chapter critically engages with some of these misgivings about Goffman. This is done through an outlining of his perspective on topics such as social structure, power and politics. It is shown that Goffman, in fact, does touch upon these issues in his work on the ‘interaction order’ with its focus on face-to-face interaction and interaction rituals either explicitly or more implicitly. The chapter concludes that although Goffman did neither pay any particular nor any sustained attention to such topics (at least not compared to many other sociologists writing during his time), he nevertheless provided the discipline of sociology with some insights into the themes of social structure, power and politics that subsequent interpreters and users of his work have been able to elaborate and expand on.

Sociology · Hermeneutics and Narrative Identity · Interpreting and Communication in Healthcare

  • Becoming an academic

    Lauren Vincent•Professional Development in…•2026

  • A European civil society elite? Analysing capital and drama at the European Economic and Social Committee

    Open Access•Anders Uhlin, Malin Arvidson•European Societies•2022

  • Stigma, the Moral Career of a Concept

    Open Access•Thaddeus Müller•Symbolic Interaction•2020

  • Transcript frame analysis

    Open Access•Maike Pötschulat•Qualitative Research•2026

Unique citing works4
Citations per year0,67
Citation span2020 - 2026 (7)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 4

Tools

Open DOILibgen
Ethnos_APP • Open Source Project • MIT License • Frontend v2.0.0 • Privacy and Cookies • API Documentation: api.ethnos.app/docs • API Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17049435 • Frontend Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17050053 • cruz.rio.br • Expectantes Misericordiae