ABSTRACT
According to Erving Goffman, a social organization results from a cognitive and normative order. The research method pursued by Goffman is of ethnographic origin, and is related to his anthropological education. This method involves a dual strategy. On the one hand there is a thick description of social reality as a theater performance, in which social actors play more or less pre-established roles. On the other hand the matter of interest is the participants' point of view as regards the considered segment of social reality. As analytical categories, roles do not determine the fate of the persons who perform them, but nonetheless they influence it, since real activities and behaviors correspond to the number of roles, and to as many personal and social identities. The subject stresses these identities by means of a personal style in performing social roles. In Giddens' opinion, ritualized conduct and frames allow considering Goffman's sociology relevant both to a micro-sociological and a macro-sociological analysis.
