Interactionist Social Theory
Goffman:
I.
Society is a series of encounters or
interactions.
II.
Encounters are special. (The ‘sacredness’
of individuals in interaction)
III. Individuals are non-independent. (There is
an interaction order sui generis).
The normative concept:
Role consists of the activity the incumbent would
engage in were he to act solely in terms of the
normative demands upon someone in his position
(Linton).
Goffman’s concept:
Role: Typical response of individuals in a
particular position vs actual role performance of a
concrete individual in a given position.
Any role has several relations, Role-set (Merton).
Any individual has many roles: Role segregation,
facilitated by audience segregation (refers to
article in Social Forces).
Roles can be played, and be played at.
Situated activity systems
Purpose: …. to adapt role concepts for use in
close studies of moment-to-moment behavior, in
face-to-face interaction, …. to examine the
complexities of concrete conduct, instead of
bypassing them.
We deal with ‘small group’ phenomena in a
natural setting.
The social content of a situated system may
faithfully express in miniature the structure of the
broader social organization in which it is located.
Doing is being:
The self-image available for anyone entering a
particular position is one of which he may
become affectively and cognitively enamored,
desiring and expecting to see himself in terms of
the enactment of the role and the selfidentification emerging from this enactment.
The problem of expression: To mimic a role vs to
play at a role.
Expression of role embracement:
1) An admitted or expressed attachment to the
role.
2) Demonstration of qualifications and
capacities.
3) An active engagement or spontaneous
engagement in the activity.
Expression of role distance:
Demonstrate that there is a vedge between doing
and being.
Situated roles that place an individual in a setting
he feels is beneath him give rise to much role
distance.
“By exposing themselves in a guise to which they have no
serious claim, they leave themselves in full control of
shortcomings they take seriously” (158).