Sociology 2240E Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Erving Goffman, The Politician, Ethnography
19 Apr 2016
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Phd research was an ethnography of a small scottish island. First wife committed suicide; he became a single father. Remarried at 59, had another child, died months later. Social life is a performance by social actors: different social roles. Success of performance depends in part on audience. Pattern of appropriate conduct that must be enacted, portrayed & realized . When an individual presents himself before others, his performance will tend to incorporate and exemplify the officially accredited values of the society . Expected behaviour attached to a set of status: son, daughter, student, customer, prime minister, citizen. Every scenario involves a definition of the situation. How a situation gets defined matters for what can occur in that setting and what will be defined as appropriate or convincing behaviour. Misidentifying the definition of a situation can bring embarrassment, bullying, ostracism. The actor always has some creative space for saving face here.
