The Goffman Reader (Goffman, Lemert, Branaman, 1997)

The Goffman Reader (Goffman, Lemert, Branaman, 1997)

"Now, thanks to a well-conceived and elegantly introduced selection of his writings by Charles Lemert and Ann Branaman, those familiar with Goffman can be stimulated once more." Charles Edgley, Oklahoma State University
"As readers go, this one, like the genius it celebrates, is truly something special." Charles Edgley, Oklahoma State University

Product Description

The Goffman Reader aims to bring the most complete collection of Erving Goffman's (1922-1982) writing and thinking as a sociologist. Among the most inventive, unique and individualistic of thinkers in American sociology, his works first appeared in the early 1950's at a time when a more formal, traditional sociology dominated the scene. In this collection, Goffman's work is arranged into four categories: the production of self, the confined self, the nature of social life, and the framing of experience. Through this arrangement, readers will not only be presented with Goffman's thinking in chronological order, but also with a framework of analysis that clearly introduces the social theoretical ideas by which Goffman shaped the direction of sociological thought through the late twentieth century.

Society is an insane asylum run by the inmates. - Erving Goffman

1xx Games are not so different from social encounters in general. Both involve rules as to what aspects of the situation, events, the material environment, and the attributes of individuals should be considered relevant and meaningful.

1xxiii "Strategic interaction" differs from expression games in that it involves not merely manipulation of information but also assessment of courses of action (SI, p. 145). The essay "Strategic Interaction" outlines the matters players must consider in planning rational action. These include: (1) the opponent's moves; (2) the operational code, or orientation to gaming that influences how the players play; (3) the opponent's resolve to proceed with the game at whatever cost; (4) the information state, or knowledge that the opponent may possess about his own and the other's situation; (5) the opponent's resources or capacities; (6) the players' attributes; (7) the gameworthiness of the players; and (8) the players' integrity, or commitment to continued loyalty to the party's interests once play has begun (SI, pp.95-97). Strategic interaction is a mutual assessment in which opponents attempt to chart their own best course of action on the basis of an enumeration of the opponent's possibilities of action (SI, p. 100)... The contribution of the concept of strategic interaction, as Goffman sees it... [involves analyzing]... the capacity to structure action on the basis of a calculative assessment of the other's possible moves and considerations (SI, pp. 136-7).

p.112 By... keeping a check upon intense involvement, he ensures that he will be ready for any event that occurs within the situation, and that he is respectful of these possibilities. By keeping himself from going too far into a situated task, he is able to remain in readiness near the surface of the situation. through all of these means, the individual shows that he is "in play" in the situation, alive to the gathering it contains, oriented in it, and ready and open for whatever interaction it may bring.

p.113 The constraints that apply to objects of involvement, to modes of managing one's involvements and (through these) to the management of accessible engagements, seem together to provide evidence of the weight and reality of the "situation."

p.219 in all societies modes of adaptation are found, including systems of normative constraint, for managing the risks and opportunities specific to social situations.