ABSTRACT

Erving Goffman’s contribution to the establishment of the procedures of qualitative sociological research is completely undisputed. His reflections on methodology and his exposition of methodological procedures relating to the generation and treatment of data, however, were limited to marginal comments. In addition to adopting the postulate of value-free judgment, Goffman followed Max Weber’s methodology and procedure in another fundamental respect when he relied upon the working principle of the construction of ideal types for the development of his analytical concepts and above all his conceptual frameworks. Goffman’s conceptual constructions pursued a structurizing and systematizing mission. The concepts and conceptual frameworks were derived from the analysis of empirical reality that was imaginative and elastic enough to be applied in flexible and creative ways to this empirical reality as “instruments of measure.” The level of complexity attained in the process of constructing the analytical concepts and conceptual frameworks marked the limits of the generalizability of sociological assertions as such.