Paper Example on Erving Goffman: A Canadian-Ukrainian Jew and His Rise to Fame

Introduction

Erving Goffman was born on 11th June 1992 in Manville Alberta, Canada, to parents Anne Goffman and Max Goffman. His family had emigrated to Canada with the origin of Ukrainian Jews. His older sister was Frances Bay, who later became an actress. The family moved to Dauphin, Manitoba, where his father has a tailoring business (Jacobsen, 2017). Goffman attended St. John's Technical School in Winnipeg in 1937, and in 1939 he enrolled at the University of Manitoba, where he majored in chemistry. After a short while, he decided to put his studies on hold and moved to Ottawa to work in the film industry (Whiteside, & Kelly, 2016). During this time, he developed an interest in sociology when he met renowned North American sociologist Dennis Wrong.

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He made the decision to leave the University of Manitoba and enroll at the University of Toronto, where he was under the guidance of Ray Birdwhistell and C. W. M. Hart, graduating in 1945 with a Bachelor in anthropology and sociology (Whiteside, & Kelly, 2016). He later joined the University of Chicago, where he got his masters in 1949 and his doctorate degree in 1953. Goffman married Angelica Choate in 1952, and in 1953 they were blessed with this first don Thomas (Crossman, 2020). His wife suffered from mental illness and died in 1964 (Jacobsen, 2017). Apart from being an academic, he also has an interest in gambling and the stock market. Goffman remarried in 1981 to Gillian Sankoff, and they were blessed with a daughter Alice the following year. However, Goffman passed away on 19th November 1982.

Major Contributions

Goffman, over his life, made significant contributions to sociology. Primarily, he is considered as the pioneer of micro-sociology. Moreover, the filled can be referred to as the close examination of social interactions that compose everyday life for an individual (Barnartt, 2016). From his research, Goffman was able to present evidence and theory of the social contribution of the self and created the concept of perspective and framing of frame analysis (Jacobsen, 2017). Consequently, the foundation of his study was based on impression management. Primarily, from his study of social interaction, Goffman was able to make a crucial mark on how sociologists study and understand stigma and how it affects people are experiencing it.

His studies are essential as they have laid the foundation and groundwork for the study in the field of strategic interaction in the game theory and also laid the foundation for the subfield and method of conversation analysis (Whiteside, & Kelly, 2016). From his study on mental institutions, he was able to come up with the framework and concept for studying the process of resocialization and total institutions that takes place within them.

Major Works

Over his life, Goffman has published some remarkable books and articles which are based on his theories. Some of his notable works include the following:

• The presentation of self in everyday life. Edinburgh: Univ. of Edinburgh, Social Sciences Research Centre, 1956 (Tyler, 2018).
• The presentation of self in everyday life. New York: Anchor Books, 1959.
• Asylums: Essays on the social situation of mental patients and other inmates. New York: Anchor Books, 1961 (Barnartt, 2016).
• Interaction ritual: Essays on face-to-face behavior. New York: Anchor Books, 1967.
• Frame analysis: An essay in the organization of experience. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1974.

These publications provide essential research on Goffman's theories and studies that he conducted over time. Moreover, they are used as the basis of understanding some critical studies to improve the concepts he was trying to communicate and advance his ideology (Crossman, 2020). There are few individuals in the field of sociology who are able to replicate what Goffman was able to do over his lifetime.

Major Theories

Erving Goffman developed the concept of Dramaturgy. The theory states that life is like a never-ending play where people are actors. He mainly believed that when people are born, they are put on the stage, which is called everyday life. Consequently, the socialization in this area consists of people mainly learning how to play their roles (Jacobsen, 2017). He believed that people enact their roles in interaction with other people, and whatever people do, they are playing their roles in life (Tyler, 2018). Primarily, he was able to distinguish between the backstage and front stages. He stated that people daily life is spent mostly on the front stage, where they mainly deliver their lines (Barnartt, 2016). Moreover, life allows people to retreat to the backstage where they can plan and be their real selves. Moreover, they can prepare for their return to the front stage.

Goffman also came up with the term Impression Management which me referred to the desire of people to manipulate others impression of them on the front stage (Tyler, 2018). Goffman stated that people use various mechanism which can be referred to as sign vehicles to present themselves to other individuals. He stated that the commonly used sign vehicles are social setting, appearance, and manner of interacting.

Major Awards

• Some of the major wards that Goffman received included
• Guggenheim Fellow 1978
• Seventy third president of the American Sociological Association 1982
• Mead Award 1983

References

Tyler, I. (2018). Resituating Erving Goffman: From stigma power to black power. The Sociological Review, 66(4), 744-765. doi/10.1177/0038026118777450

Jacobsen, M. H. (2017). Erving Goffman. In the Interactionist Imagination (pp. 195-232). Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58184-6_8

Barnartt, S. N. (2016). How Erving Goffman affected perceptions of disability within sociology. In Sociology looking at disability: What did we know and when did we know it. Emerald Group Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-354720160000009004

Whiteside, B., & Kelly, J. (2016). The presentation of self in the classical ballet class: dancing with Erving Goffman. Research in dance education, 17(1), 14-27. https://doi.org/10.1080/14647893.2015.1110570

Crossman, A. (2020). The Life and Works of Famed Sociologist Erving Goffman. ThoughtCo. Retrieved 30 July 2020, from https://www.thoughtco.com/erving-goffman-3026489.