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Samenvatting ENP22803
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Samenvatting Theories and Themes:Sociology
9 Sociologen
Microsociology
Goffman - Coleman
Practices and structures
Shove- Bourdieu - Jurgen Habermas
Global modernity
Athony Giddens - Ulrich Beck - John Urry - Zygmunt Bauman
Week 1 micro sociology
Micro sociology vs macro-sociology
Micro sociology
o Study of social interactions
o Human behaviour is based on individuals’ interpretation of a situation and the
meaning they give it
Macro sociology
o Study of social structures/institutions
o Human behaviour is determined by position within social structures (roles, class,
status, institution)
School of ‘’micro-sociology’’
Microsociology is concerned with person-to-person encounters and the details of human
interaction and communication
Argues against structural determinism as giving priority to systems and structures over
human agents
Emphasizes human action: social life is ‘made to happen’ by active and creative human actors
Micro = ‘’Interpretative’’ sociology
Studies the ‘tacit rules’ governing behaviors in everyday life:
Cell phone behavior in the train, class, or at dinner; what do we (not) discuss at the
barber, in the pub, at a party; how to handle happy new year kisses; when and how
do we queue
Qualitative methods: ethnography, interviews, participant observation
Interested in problematic situations or situations that demand new interpretations
Different ‘streams’ of micro-sociology
Phenomenology (Schutz/Weber)
Ethnomethodology (Garfinkel)
Symbolic Interactionism (Blumer/Mead)
Dramaturgical Approach (Goffman)
, Exchange theory/rational Choice theory (Blau/Homans/Coleman)
Theory of Interaction Rules (Collins)
They all ‘zoom in’ on situated interactions between (small groups of) people
1.2 Erving Goffman (1922-1982)
Goffman grof man drama dramaturgical approach onderzoek gedaan in mental hospital
Exam question:
2) a) Goffman and Foucault* both had an interest in criminality and madness. Compare and contrast
their perspectives by discussing two points of difference (4 pts)
b) How might some of the key concepts of [sociologist] be used to explore [a social phenomenon]? In
your answer define and apply at least 3 concepts. (6pt)
*note that Foucault is not part of the exam
Lecture
Mostly worked and studied in U.S., born in Canada
Great eye on small details of everyday social encounters/behaviour
Worked in a mental hospital for research, wrote a book called asylum
‘’The presentation of self in everyday life’’ (1956/59)
‘’The presentation of self in everyday life’’ (1956/59) is about the way individuals represent
themselves towards others. To understand this he uses the theatre, because actors have mastered
the way they present themselves.
Known for the ‘Dramaturgical Approach’
The ‘Dramaturgical Approach’
https://ervinggoffmanandyou.com/
Social life is like a performance: a play enacted and performed together on stage, in front of a real or
imagined ‘public’/ audience
(citation from ‘Presentation’, pp 201) ‘’Whatever it is that generates the human want for social
contact and for companionship, the effect seems to take two forms: a need for audience before
, which to try out one’s vaunted selves, and need for team-mates with whom to enter into collusive
intimacies and back-stage relaxation’’
Key concepts dramaturgical approach:
Impression management: the ways in which the individual guides and controls the impressions
others form of him or her
Performance: intended to influence other participants’ understanding of the events at hand
Front stage is where the performance takes places and includes the setting and the personal front
Back stage is the place closed to and hidden from the audience where techniques of impression
management are practiced.
Performances are a cooperation of more than one participant:
Teams: a set of individuals who cooperate to present to the audience a given definition of the
situation
Tact: the audience contributes to the maintenance of the show by exercising tact on behalf of the
performers
‘make-work’= making the right impression when the boss is entering the work floor
‘announcing yourself’= when your entry into a situation might be embarrassing…
Dealing with ‘backstage difficulties’, e.g. when being a stranger among friends exchanging intimacies
(cell-phone conversations in train coupe)
‘’Not, then, men and their moments. Rather moments and their men.’’
Goffman as an empirical microsociologist
Taking close look/inspection: dive in to situations; train yourself in observing things = radical
empiricism
Participant observation as important research method (e.g. Chicago School Approach)
Special interest for social life at the edge: deviant behaviour, criminality, casino, madness
(book: Asylum), Porn Stars etc.
Asylums (book):
Goffman worked in a mental health institution as recreation assistant
Total institution: ‘’a place of residence and work were large number of like-situated
individuals, cut off from the wider society for an appreciable amount of time, together lead
an enclosed, formally administered round of life’’ (1961, xii)
People are stripped from their clothes and their identities when entering the asylum in order
to be ‘rebuild’ again during their imprisonment.
Normal identities develop when interacting with multiple roles/ different identities
The asylum offers only two categories: patient and doctor; mad and normal; being in charge
or powerless
By being ‘locked up’ into the simple ‘role’ offered by the Asylum, people start showing
extreme behaviours Asylumas a response. Resistance or being the ‘ideal’ patient
Small strategies to preserve selfhood: ‘’make-do’’ and ‘’free places’’
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