Goffman, Erving (1922-1982)

Erving Goffman (1922-1982) was born in Alberta, Canada, to Ukrainian Jewish parents. He was one of the most influential American sociologists of the second half of the 20^th century. He began his sociology studies in Toronto before moving to Chicago, where he studied with William Lloyd Warner and Everett Hughes. Ethnographic observation occupies a privileged and decisive place in the conduct of his work and the construction of his theoretical tools. As part of his doctoral research, he made a field trip to the Shetland Islands in 1952. He built a theory of interactionism that he called “dramaturgical”, willingly using theatrical vocabulary to describe his observations of interactions in everyday life. In 1955-1956, he moved to a psychiatric hospital in Washington. He produced a masterpiece, Asylums, published in 1961, which describes the workings of a totalitarian institution from the point of view of internees. He taught at the Universities of Berkeley (1957-1968) and Pennsylvania (1968-1982). He is the author of a major work, focusing on rites of interaction and the construction of social identity through ritual, stigma and individual relationship.

Keywords: Sociology | Ethnography | United States of America | Social theory | Rites of interaction | Power