Erving Goffman

Erving Goffman (June 11, 1922 - November 19, 1982), was a Canadian sociologist and writer. Goffman received his B.A. at the University of Toronto in 1945 and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1949 and 1953 respectively.

Related Topics:
June 11 - 1922 - November 19 - 1982 - Sociologist - B.A. - University of Toronto - M.A. - Ph.D. - University of Chicago

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Author of the seminal text Asylums, for which he gathered information at the National Institute of Mental Health in Washington, D.C., he describes "institutionalization" as a response by patients to the bureaucratic structures of a hospital setting. Goffman uses phenomenology to understand how humans perceive the interactions that they observe and take part in. To Goffman there is no real capital-T truth, but interpretations that are real to each individual.

Related Topics:
Asylums - National Institute of Mental Health - Washington, D.C. - Institutionalization - Phenomenology - Truth

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Goffman's greatest contribution to social theory is his formulation of symbolic interaction in his 1959 book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Although Goffman is often characterized as a symbolic interactionist, he tried to correct the flaws of symbolic interactionism. For Goffman, society is not a homogenous creature. 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 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.

Related Topics:
The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life - Symbolic interactionist

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He also authored Frame analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. Many of his works form the basis for the sociological and media studies concept of framing.

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