ABSTRACT
In his book, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959), Erving Goffman considered the way in which individuals present themselves to others in order to project forms of identity. He made a distinction between signs given, the things people do consciously to make a specific impression of themselves in certain contexts, and signs given off, the impressions given to others – the meanings others interpret – that an individual may or may not consciously intend (1959: 2). He proposed that certain aspects of social life could be apprehended through the microanalysis of the numerous everyday routine encounters in which members of a society interact with one another – simultaneously as individuals performing particular roles and as social categories based on their gender, race, or ethnic origins, for example. He saw face-to-face and other types of close encounters – both fleeting and recurring – as performing a key social function. They demonstrated a certain regularity, but also a vulnerability, in the mutually constructed social relationships conducted or attempted among members of a society. In doing so, Goffman drew attention to the significance of what he termed “the interaction order” which, he suggested, served as a “membrane” or set of “transformational rules” for the conduct of society (Goffman 1983: 11).
