ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces an overview of a constructive critical perspective on Goffman’s work. This volume brings together two traditions: the numerous topics on which Goffman has offered original innovative insights and the emerging conceptual and empirical topics within recent developments in ethnomethodology and conversation analysis (EMCA). In particular, this chapter as well as this book as a whole, demonstrates how recent conceptual debates and empirical, video-based research procedures in EMCA can cast new light on Goffman’s central ideas concerning the self, participation, public space, and the body. The book addresses Goffman’s ideas as a springboard to new systematic explorations of structures and practices of social interaction within the recent conceptual and methodological developments in EMCA. This introduction also provides a general background of Goffman’s work that addresses social interaction, and positions his legacy both in regard to its interdisciplinary reception and its discussion within EMCA. An outline is first presented of Goffman’s contribution to contemporary social sciences and linguistics. This is followed by his work in the three key analytical areas covered by this book concerning the self, the notion of participation, and the body, and further specifies the contributions of the book chapters in these three research fields.
