How to read ERWING GOFFMAN for JRF? ||Sociology Thinkers || Net/Jrf,CUET

ERWING GOFFMAN is one of the most important thinkers of sociology and 3-4 questions are asked in NET/JRF and any sociology exams.

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Erving Goffman, a prominent sociologist, is best known for his work on symbolic interactionism and his analysis of everyday life. Below is a list of some of his key concepts:

1. Dramaturgy

• Definition: Goffman uses the metaphor of theater to explain social interactions, where individuals perform roles in various settings.
• Key Work: The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1956)

2. Impression Management

• Definition: The process by which individuals attempt to control the impressions others form of them, often by manipulating information in social interactions.
• Key Work: The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1956)

3. Front Stage and Back Stage

• Definition: The concept of different behaviors in different settings. The “front stage” refers to the public performance, while the “back stage” is where individuals can be themselves without performing.
• Key Work: The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1956)

4. Role Distance

• Definition: The separation between an individual’s identity and the role they are performing, indicating that the person does not fully identify with the role.
• Key Work: Encounters: Two Studies in the Sociology of Interaction (1961)

5. Stigma

• Definition: A concept that explores how individuals who are discredited in society manage their spoiled identity, particularly through visible or invisible marks of difference.
• Key Work: Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity (1963)

6. Total Institutions

• Definition: Institutions like prisons, asylums, or the military where individuals are isolated from society and under strict control. Goffman explores how these institutions strip individuals of their identity.
• Key Work: Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates (1961)

7. The Interaction Order

• Definition: Goffman’s idea that everyday social interactions are governed by a set of unspoken rules, norms, and rituals that maintain order.
• Key Work: Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-to-Face Behavior (1967)

8. Face and Face-work

• Definition: “Face” refers to the positive social value a person claims for themselves in interactions, while “face-work” is the effort put into maintaining this face during interactions.
• Key Work: Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-to-Face Behavior (1967)

9. Frames and Frame Analysis

• Definition: Goffman explores how individuals organize their experiences by interpreting and defining situations through mental frameworks or “frames.”
• Key Work: Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience (1974)

10. The Ritual of Subordination

• Definition: Examines how societal rituals and practices, such as deference and demeanor, reinforce power dynamics and social hierarchies.
• Key Work: Gender Advertisements (1979)