Goffman is marvelous. Microsociology. Study of encounters, how you do/don’t save face. The essays in Presentation of Self in Everyday Life are really strong, readable, foundational for this kind of urban sociology meets anthropology work. Also — just thick description of what happens when people get together in small-ish groups.
Story about Goffman that I heard when I was at Chicago: he was a prof at Penn, and he would play tricks with his class, like have his students all meet in the field in front of the library, by a tree or a statue of Ben Franklin or something, and then hide and wait watch them try to sort out what to do as the class was starting later and later — when the students didn’t know each other well, without having any kind of implied or manifest hierarchy between them, in an uncomfortable social situation that nevertheless demanded some kind of resolution.
Next time I see you, I’ll lend you my little mass-market copy of Interaction Ritual. It’s like the singles album accompaniment to Presentation of Self in Everyday Life.
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I just figured you took a nap!
Goffman is marvelous. Microsociology. Study of encounters, how you do/don’t save face. The essays in Presentation of Self in Everyday Life are really strong, readable, foundational for this kind of urban sociology meets anthropology work. Also — just thick description of what happens when people get together in small-ish groups.
Story about Goffman that I heard when I was at Chicago: he was a prof at Penn, and he would play tricks with his class, like have his students all meet in the field in front of the library, by a tree or a statue of Ben Franklin or something, and then hide and wait watch them try to sort out what to do as the class was starting later and later — when the students didn’t know each other well, without having any kind of implied or manifest hierarchy between them, in an uncomfortable social situation that nevertheless demanded some kind of resolution.
I KNEW I could count on you for the Goffman context. I just assumed.
Next time I see you, I’ll lend you my little mass-market copy of Interaction Ritual. It’s like the singles album accompaniment to Presentation of Self in Everyday Life.