ABSTRACT
Erving Goffman drew a radical line right across the social interaction existence on the one side what is presented and what is or is made visible in the interaction with others (frontstage), and on the other side what is not presented or remains hidden (backstage). When the idea of such a boundary has been established, it is hardly possible to experience one side without thinking about the other. Is he or she really the way she or he represents him- or herself? Do the ethical guidelines at my place of work truly reflect what is happening there? Are the state representatives’ talk about democracy supported in concrete actions by democratic institutions and practices? This is a very basic and radical metaperspective because we – individual or collective actors – continually relate how we imagine we are and should be, and want to be perceived how (we believe that) other people perceive us. What distinguishes Goffman’s sociology is precisely this continuously present metaperspective that is expressed in Frame Analysis, but that I have shown also characterises his substantial analyses of social interaction. Goffman’s approach was frame analytic long before he wrote the book on frame analysis as a method.
