CRM 2302 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Ian Hacking, Erving Goffman, Symbolic Interactionism
24 May 2018
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CRM SOC Day 16 – April 3, 2018
Lecture 16 Beyond Symbolic Interactionism
Between Foucault & Goffman (1)
• Ian Hacking (2004)
- Cited like 3000 times, had in impact on other people
- He is concerned with how are people made up or constructed to be who they are
- He argues that how classifications interact with with the people that are classified
• Proposes that we need both Foucault’s macro-level theory and Goffman’s micro-level
theory to understand how ‘people are made up’
• Complementary (not contradictory) approaches
Between Foucault & Goffman (2)
• Boundaries of knowledge & experience à limitations on understanding self & on choices
one can make (Sartre)
- What one knows, and experiences presents limitations of understanding oneself
- The choices that are open to us are possible by the immediate social setting and
environment
• Social setting (Goffman) & history of the present (Foucault) necessary to investigate
people’s choices (and choice possibilities)
Goffman
• Micro-level approach (bottom-up)
• Social interaction between individuals
• Paying attention to gestures, language, tone, body-language, silences important in
understanding how people are constituted
• Missing from Goffman: How are institutions constituted? How do they come into being?
- Not interested in the structural forces of the institutions that shape how people can be
in the world
Foucault
• Macro-level approach (top-down)
• Discourse, social structures, as units of analysis
• Missing from Foucault: The individual; agency; resistance to structural forces
- You feel like there is no person in the analysis
- It’s almost like the person is very passive
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Michel Foucault
• French philosopher
• 1926-1984
• Post-structuralist or postmodernist
• Books
- Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison
- History of sexuality: Vol. 1-4
- Madness & Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason
Foucault
• Archaeology of knowledge
- Argued that in anytime in history, things will strain on how one thinks
• A history of the present
• How social structures came into being
- Not the product of social improvements but rather maintenance of power
• Criticized for not attending to individual experience
- Individual agency and resistance invisible
• State power and public punishment was not having affect anymore, putting people in
prison was a way of change to deal with these people
• Was a way to showcase their power
• What we think is possible is shaped by those in power, they make use think that we can
do them
• Criticized for not attending to individual experiences of those who are marginalized –
individual agency and resistance of invisible
‘Making up People’ (Hacking)
• Interaction between classifications and the people classified
• Looping effect – moving targets
- It is a dynamic process of being affected by one another
• Example: Disease vs. learned behaviour model to explain sexual offending
- Different identity implications for each
• The way that we think of people who commit criminal acts change constantly
• Public opinion has changed over the decades, and their reaction also affects those that are
offenders
‘Making up People’ (2)
• Naming / label / classifications has real effects on people;
• Changes in people has effects on classifications
• Example ‘wife rape’
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Crm soc day 16 april 3, 2018. Cited like 3000 times, had in impact on other people. He is concerned with how are people made up or constructed to be who they are. He argues that how classifications interact with with the people that are classified: proposes that we need both foucault"s macro-level theory and goffman"s micro-level theory to understand how people are made up", complementary (not contradictory) approaches. Between foucault & goffman (2: boundaries of knowledge & experience limitations on understanding self & on choices one can make (sartre) What one knows, and experiences presents limitations of understanding oneself. The choices that are open to us are possible by the immediate social setting and environment: social setting (goffman) & history of the present (foucault) necessary to investigate people"s choices (and choice possibilities) Not interested in the structural forces of the institutions that shape how people can be in the world.
