ABSTRACT
The Canadian sociologist Erving Goffman is not very well known for his contributions to the study of the military. Erving Goffman uses a dramaturgical perspective, focusing on the concrete interactions between people who are 'on stage', which means they perform in an organizational context. Belgian military sociologist Joris van Bladel analysed the process of new recruits becoming part of the informal culture in a Russian barracks. In this analysis he used Goffman's ideas about the total institution. In general, he saw similar patterns to Goffman in his construction of the inmate's world. The American anthropologist James Scott has criticized the many failed attempts by governments to improve the human condition in their states. He pointed at policies of collectivization in the former Soviet Union, the planning of high modernist cities such as Brasilia, and the taming of nature by the planting of large-scale forests and farms all over the world.
