Alle Publikationen
2018
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(2018): Alibis for Adult Play. A Goffmanian Account of Escaping Embarrassment in Adult Play. In: Games and culture 13 (3), S. 260-279. DOI: 10.1177/1555412017721086
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29706842 Abstract: The social meanings of play sit at odds with norms of responsible and productive adult conduct. To be "caught" playing as an adult therefore risks embarrassment. Still, many designers want to create enjoyable, nonembarrassing play experiences for adults. To address this need, this article reads instances of spontaneous adult play through the lens of Erving Goffman's theory of the interaction order to unpack conditions and strategies for nonembarrassing adult play. It identifies established frames, segregated audiences, scripts supporting smooth performance, managing audience awareness, role distancing, and, particularly, alibis for play: Adults routinely provide alternative, adult-appropriate motives to account for their play, such as child care, professional duties, creative expression, or health. Once legitimized, the norms and rules of play themselves then provide an alibi for behavior that would risk being embarrassing outside play.
Keywords: accounts, adult play, adulthood, alibi, BEHAVIOR, Disziplin, embarrassment, Erving Goffman, frame analysis, Goffman, IDENTITY, Interaktion, Kulturtheorie, MODELS, play, motivational accounting system, Rechtfertigung, role distance, script, Spiel, spielen, theory of interaction, Theory of interaction (Goffman), TRANSITION, VOCABULARIES, Wissen um Normen, WORK -
(2018): The Perils and Promises of Self-Disclosure on Social Media. In: Information Systems Frontiers 20 (3), S. 425-437. DOI: 10.1007/s10796-017-9806-7
Abstract: In addition to their professional social media accounts, individuals are increasingly using their personal profiles and casual posts to communicate their identities to work colleagues. They do this in order to 'stand out from the crowd' and to signal attributes that are difficult to showcase explicitly in a work setting. Existing studies have tended to treat personal posts viewed in a professional context as a problem, since they can threaten impression management efforts. These accounts focus on the attempts of individuals to separate their life domains on social media. In contrast, we present the narratives of professional IT workers in India who intentionally disrupt the boundaries between personal and professional profiles in order to get noticed by their employers. Drawing on the dramaturgical vocabulary of Goffman (1959) we shed light on how individuals cope with increased levels of self-disclosure on social media. We argue that their self-presentations can be likened to post-modem performances in which the traditional boundaries between actor and audience are intentionally unsettled. These casual posts communicate additional personal traits that are not otherwise included in professional presentations. Since there are no strict boundaries between formal front-stage and relaxed back-stage regions in these types of performance, a liminal mental state is often used, which enables a better assessment of the type of information to present on social media.
Keywords: Art des Kommunikationsmediums, Blurred boundaries, Business Studies, Communication, Facebook, Goffman, Goffman KeyWords Plus:IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT, Image, Inference, INNOVATION, Konstruktion des Selbst, NETWORKING SITES, ORGANIZATIONS, Self-presentation, social media, SYSTEMS, technology, Theory of interaction (Goffman), Verhalten am Arbeitsplatz, WORK -
(2018): Exploring digital remediation in support of personal reflection. In: International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 110, S. 53-62. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhcs.2017.10.002
Abstract: Increasingly our digital traces are providing new opportunities for self-reflection. In particular, social media (SM) data can be used to support self-reflection, but to what extent is this affected by the form in which SM data is presented? Here, we present three studies where we work with individuals to transform or remediate their SM data into a physical book, a photographic triptych and a film. We describe the editorial decisions that take place as part of the remediation process and show how the transformations allow users to reflect on their digital identity in new ways. We discuss our findings in terms of the application of Goffman's (1959) self-presentation theories to the SM context, showing that a fluid rather than bounded interpretation of our social media spaces may be appropriate. We argue that remediation can contribute to the understanding of digital self and consider the design implications for new SM systems designed to support self-reflection
2017
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(2017): Theorizing animal–computer interaction as machinations. In: International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 98, S. 135-149. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhcs.2016.05.005
Abstract: The increased involvement of animals in digital technology and user-computer research opens up for new possibilities and forms of interaction. It also suggests that the emerging field of Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI) needs to reconsider what should be counted as interaction. The most common already established forms of interaction are direct and dyadic, and limited to domesticated animals such as working dogs and pets. Drawing on an ethnography of the use of mobile proximity sensor cameras in ordinary wild boar hunting we emphasize a more complex, diffuse, and not directly observable form of interaction, which involves wild animals in a technological and naturalistic setting. Investigating human and boar activities related to the use of these cameras in the light of Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and Goffman's notion of strategic interaction reveals a gamelike interaction that is prolonged, networked and heterogeneous, in which members of each species is opposed the other in a mutual assessment acted out through a set of strategies and counter-strategies. We stress the role of theory for the field of ACI and how conceptualizations of interaction can be used to excite the imagination and be generative for design. Seeing interaction as strategies and acknowledging the existence of complex interdependencies could potentially inspire the design of more indirect and non-dyadic interactions where a priori simplifications of design challenges as either human or animal can be avoided. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Actor-network theory, Animal-computer interaction, Animal-Computer-Interaction, ANT und ANT mit Esserschem Modell, Ethnography, Goffman, Im (wissenschaftlichen) Diskurs, Interaktion, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Ontological symmetry, Ontologische Differenzierungen: Tier, Mensch, Maschine, Reflexionen über MTR, Strategic interaction, Theory of interaction (Goffman), Tier und Maschine -
(2017): Aprovação social na ponta dos dedos. Representação do eu e gerenciamento de impressões no Tinder. In: Teknokultura 14 (2), S. 339-350. DOI: 10.5209/TEKN.56357
Abstract: This work aims, in an exploratory way, to understand the dynamics of self management on Tinder from the dramaturgical perspective of Erving Goffman. It is understood that, by triggering mechanisms of geolocation and asynchronous interaction, this social app mobilizes different forms of self presentation and legitimation of social faces. Therefore, it is discussed here how users construct themselves using the material limits of the mobile device seeking the social legitimation of their identities putted to the interaction.
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(2017): The phenomenology of self-presentation. Describing the structures of intercorporeality with Erving Goffman. In: Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 16 (2), S. 237-254. DOI: 10.1007/s11097-015-9447-6
Abstract: Self-presentation is a term that indicates conscious and unconscious strategies for controlling or managing how one is perceived by others in terms of both appearance and comportment. In this article, I will discuss the phenomenology of self-presentation with respect to the phenomenological insights of Edmund Husserl and Merleau-Ponty regarding the visibility of the body within intercorporeal relations through 'behaviour' and 'expression.' In doing so, I will turn to the work of the Canadian sociologist and social theorist Erving Goffman. Goffman's account of self-presentation suggests why embodied subjects adopt certain styles of ordered bodily behaviour as determined by the broader social order, giving existential and social significance to the ontological structures of intercorporeal bodily communication. Following Goffman, I will suggest that the embodied subject is continuously-and constitutionally-engaged in implicit and explicit strategies to manage how the body is presented to others. In articulating self-presentation as a feature of intercorporeality, my aim in this article is to use Goffman's insights to extend Husserl's and Merleau-Ponty's accounts of bodily communication by demonstrating that bodily communication that is instantiated at the level of intercorporeality is always expressed through social life with its various historical, cultural and linguistic dimensions.
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(2017): Expectations and provocations. In: Qualitative Research Journal 17 (4), S. 265-282. DOI: 10.1108/QRJ-08-2016-0054
Abstract: Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to address participants' humorous provocations as a part of informal interactions between participants and researcher that can be treated just like the research data. By means of autoethnographic analysis, the author explores the expectations of the researcher and participants that humour research entails and discusses how different expectations are revealed in participants' provocations. Design/methodology/approach-This paper uses an autoethnographic approach to discuss the informal interactions between participants and the researcher gathered during research into staffroom humour. The informal interactions in general and humour specifically were recorded, analysed, coded, interpreted and theorised just like the data on humour between participants. The theoretical framework used in the study combines Goffman's (1959) version of symbolic interactionism and Solomon et al. (2006) idea of hybrid spaces. Findings-The study shows the need for reconsideration of expectations entangled in humour research and proposes to be prepared for unexpected. Expecting unexpected can help stay open minded in the field and in interactions with participants and apply healthy distance towards own research and own expectations. The study shows that whenever certain behaviour was expected and different behaviour was delivered, there was a chance for certain behaviour being interpreted as provocations. Participants' provocations can result from their own expectations about the research or what they think is expected from them by the researcher and thus they remain subject to different interpretations. Research limitations/implications-Further research could investigate and discuss the role of humour in participant-researcher interactions in different research contexts and across different methodologies. Combining and analysing experiences of use of humour from both participants and researchers could allow for creating the guidelines in the use of humour in different research situations. Ethical challenges posed by informal interactions between researcher and participants could be explored further and suggestions as to how to protect the researcher, research and participants in such interactions could be developed. Originality/value-This paper aims to be a starting point for a discussion about the understudied relationship between expectations humour research is entangled with and participants' provocations. The study shows innovative approach to informal interactions between participants' and researcher which are treated as research data and are theorised using original combination of symbolic interactionism and hybrid spaces. The study contributes to the qualitative research methodology by discussing the ethics of both using humour with participants and recording and analysing informal humorous interactions between participants and the researcher.
2016
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(2016): Normality and Trust in Goffman's Theory of Interaction Order. In: Sociological Theory 19 (3), S. 312-324. DOI: 10.1111/0735-2751.00143
Abstract: The article asserts that Goffman's concept of normality comes close to the notion of trust as a protective mechanism that prevents chaos and disorder by providing us with feelings of safety, certainty, and familiarity. Arguing that to account for the tendency of social order to be seen as normal we need to conceptualize trust as the routine background of everyday interaction, the article analyzes Goffmans concepts of normal appearances, stigma, and frames as devices for endowing social order with predictability, reliability, and legibility. For Goffman, normality is a collective achievement, which is possible because of the orderliness of interactional activities, which is-in turn-predicated "on a large base of shared cognitive presuppositions, if not normative ones, and self-sustained restraints".
Keywords: Anerkennung und kollektive Intentionalität, Disziplin, Erwartungen, erwartungen und Erwartungserwartungen, familiarity, Frame theory, Frameanalysis Rahmenanalyse Framing, Goffman, Interaktion, kollektive Intentionalität, Natur & Genese von Normen, Soziale Ordnung, Soziologie, Theorie der Normen und Kollektive Repräsentationen (Durkheim), Theory of interaction (Goffman), Vertrauen -
(2016): Reading palm-up signs. Neurosemiotic overview of a common hand gesture. In: Semiotica (210). DOI: 10.1515/sem-2016-0053
Abstract: This article explores ways in which the human nervous system encodes and decodes palm-up gestural signs, signals, and cues. Palm-up gestures and their accompanying speech acts evolved from an ancient neurological system that gave rise to both gestural (pectoral) communication and vocal (laryngeal) language (Bass and Chagnaud 2013, Shared developmental and evolutionary origins for neural basis of vocal-acoustic and pectoral-gestural signaling. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109. 10677-10684.). Meanings of palm-up cues are multifaceted and nuanced, and express degrees of emotional helplessness, cognitive uncertainty, prosodic emphasis, and social deference. By themselves or in combination with other hand movements - such as reaching, showing, and pointing - palm-up cues are used to begin speaking turns, ask questions, request favors, and share personal opinions, feelings, and moods. The palm-up hand movement is a possibly universal signal of deference, in Erving Goffman's (1956, The nature of deference and demeanor. American Anthropologist 58(3). 473-502.) sense of the term, not unlike other deferential body-motion cues such as the anjaimudra, bow, curtsy, genuflection, kowtow, namaste, poussi-poussi, pranama, sampeah, and wai.
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(2016): Obligation and Impersonality. In: Philosophy of the Social Sciences 46 (6), S. 604-623. DOI: 10.1177/0048393116649970
Abstract: Although sociologists conceive obligation as an objective force (the social) that compels individuals to act and think according to pre-defined norms of conduct and ways of reasoning, philosophers view it as an imperative that is met through the agent's deliberation. The aim of this article is to undermine the standard dichotomy between the deterministically sociological and the moral-philosophical views of obligation by way of contending that Wittgenstein's view on blind obedience (as analyzed by Meredith Williams) bears a conception of the social. I will then argue that Wittgenstein's notion of forms of life and the sociological notion of situation refer to the same encompassing phenomenon: obligation. I will finally claim that this phenomenon should be re-specified in terms of impersonality to devise a shared dynamic conception of obligation admitting that a plurality of contextual normative orders monitor collective and individual action in ordinary life.
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(2016): Multiple Audiences as Text Stakeholders. A Conceptual Framework for Analyzing Complex Rhetorical Situations. In: Argumentation 30 (4), S. 467-499. DOI: 10.1007/s10503-016-9394-6
Abstract: In public communication contexts, such as when a company announces the proposal for an important organizational change, argumentation typically involves multiple audiences, rather than a single and homogenous group, let alone an individual interlocutor. In such cases, an exhaustive and precise characterization of the audience structure is crucial both for the arguer, who needs to design an effective argumentative strategy, and for the external analyst, who aims at reconstructing such a strategic discourse. While the peculiar relevance of multiple audience is often emphasized in the argumentation literature and in rhetorical studies, proposals for modelling multi-audience argumentative situations remain scarce and unsystematic. To address this gap, we propose an analytical framework which integrates three conceptual constructs: (1) Rigotti and Rocci's notion of communicative activity type, understood as the implementation of an interaction scheme into a piece of institutional reality, named interaction field; (2) the stakeholder concept, originally developed in strategic management and public relations studies to refer to any actor who affects and/or is affected by the organizational actions and who, accordingly, carries an interest in them; (3) the concept of participant role as it emerges from Goffman's theory of conversation analysis and related linguistic and media studies. From this integration, we derive the notion of text stakeholder for referring to any organizational actor whose interest (stake) becomes an argumentative issue which the organizational text must account for in order to effectively achieve its communicative aim. The text stakeholder notion enables a more comprehensive reconstruction and characterization of multiple audience by eliciting the relevant participants staged in a text and identifying, for each of them, the interactional role they have, the peculiar interest they bear and the related argumentative issue they create. Considering as an illustrative case the defense document issued by a corporation against a hostile takeover attempt made by another corporation, we show how this framework can support the analysis of strategic maneuvering by better defining the audience demand and, so, better explaining how real arguers design and adapt their topical and presentational choices.
Keywords: breites Publikum, Communicative Activity Type nach Rigotti und Rocci, Goffman, Interaktionspartner, Kommunikation, Kommunikationswissenschaft, Konversationsanalyse, Öffentliche Darstellung, Öffentlicher vs. privater Raum, Öffentlichkeit, Publikumswirksamkeit, Rhetorik, Sozialer Raum / Kultureller Kontext, stakeholder, Stakeholder Concept (of Communication), Strategien zur Erlangung von Sympathie, Theory of interaction (Goffman), Wissen um Normen -
(2016): Philosophical Anthropology, Shame, and Disability. In Favor of an Interpersonal Theory of Shame. In: Res Philosophica 93 (4), S. 743-765. DOI: 10.11612/resphil.1472
Abstract: This article argues against a leading cognitivist and moral interpretation of shame that is present in the philosophical literature. That standard view holds that shame is the felt-response to a loss of self-esteem, which is the result of negative self-assessment. I hold that shame is a heteronomous and primitive bodily affect that is perceptual rather than judgmental in nature. Shame results from the breakdown and thwarting of our desire for anonymous, unexceptional, and disattentive co-existence with others. I use the sociological theory of Erving Goffman and the theory of shame found in philosophical anthropology to support this view. I also use the cases of shame and chronic shame that often accompany disability to show that shame is separable from negative self-assessment and, instead, emerges as an affective response to a world (of equipment, things, and people) that disallows unburdened and unreflective interpersonal equilibrium.
2015
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(2015): How to be in public. The case of an early television show. In: Celebrity Studies 6 (3), S. 355-369. DOI: 10.1080/19392397.2015.1062647
Abstract: The process of image management, whether of celebrities or non-celebrities, involves attention to several different registers of communication at once. The act of appearing on television has always presented difficulties for ordinary people in managing these different framings' of their spontaneous behaviour. This is vividly demonstrated by the first ever Double Your Money programme on the newly opened British commercial channel ITN in 1955. The different performance styles that people employed, along with the key role of the presenter Hughie Green, are here examined in detail. The problems of historical TV research using programmes that were temporarily meaningful' are also discussed along with other examinations of this archival programme.
Keywords: Außendarstellung, Fernsehen, Goffman, Im (wissenschaftlichen) Diskurs, Image, Konfliktverhalten, Konstruktion des Selbst, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Observablen/Kriterien für sozial angemessenes Verhalten und dessen Bewertung, Öffentliche Darstellung, Öffentlichkeit, Reflexionen über MTR, Status / biologische Marker, Technik, TV -
(2015): The Festive Frame. Festivals as Mediators for Social Change. In: Ethnos 81 (4), S. 600-616. DOI: 10.1080/00141844.2014.989869
Abstract: Building on Erwin Goffman's (1974) notion of frame, the article approaches the festive' as a socially produced conceptual structure by means of which people organize their perception of and participation in the world. Picking up on the epistemic threats initially developed in early French sociology, it explores the ability of different elements and forms of the festive' to act as mediator for social change.
2014
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(2014): The taxicab-hailing encounter. The politics of gesture in the interaction order. In: Semiotica (202), S. 609-629. DOI: 10.1515/sem-2014-0047
Abstract: The forms of emblematic gesture and other communicative moves used in hailing taxicabs are shaped by the urban built environment and by the micropolitics sparked by what Goffman called the "loose coupling" of the interaction and social orders. Cabdrivers evaluate street hails and choose whether or not to stop for prospective passengers; hailers seek to communicate their desirability as passengers within the limited mode of the street hail. The conditions and constraints that underlie the practice and reception of street hailing are considered. A survey on methods used to hail taxis was sent to a listserv of taxi drivers in San Francisco, California. The drivers evaluated street hails in terms of two axes clarity and propriety - and three levels of context: the immediate interactional context of the street; the anticipated interactional context of the cab ride; and the political context, or the political discourse framing taxicab regulation in the city.
2013
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(2013): ‘The presentation of self in the online world’. Goffman and the study of online identities. In: Journal of Information Science 39 (1), S. 101-112. DOI: 10.1177/0165551512470051
Abstract: This paper presents an exemplification and discussion of the contemporaneity of Erving Goffman's work and of its applicability to the analysis of identity and presentation of self in the blogging and Second Life (SL) contexts. An analysis of online identity and interaction practices in 10 different cases of bloggers and SL inhabitants and of their online spaces is presented in terms of: expressions given; embellishment as a minor form of persona adoption; dividing the self; conforming and 'fitting in'; and masking, anonymity and pseudonimity. The key finding of the research is that, contrary to engaging with the process of whole persona adoption, participants were keen to re-create their offline self online, but engaged in editing facets of self. This emphasizes the key premise in Goffman's work that, when in 'front stage', people deliberately chose to project a given identity. It is concluded that Goffman's original framework is of great usefulness as an explanatory framework for understanding identity through interaction and the presentation of self in the online world. Equally, the online environment, with its enhanced potential for editing the self, can offer opportunities to contribute to the further development of the Goffman framework.
Keywords: Anonymität, blogging, Goffman, Im (wissenschaftlichen) Diskurs, Image, Informations- & Kommunikationstechnik, Konstruktion des Selbst, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Observablen/Kriterien für sozial angemessenes Verhalten und dessen Bewertung, Öffentliche Darstellung, Realtechnik, Reflexionen über MTR, Second Life, Status / biologische Marker, Technik, Theory of interaction (Goffman), whole persona -
(2013): Introduction. Face, identity and im/politeness. Looking backward, moving forward: From Goffman to practice theory. In: Journal of Politeness Research 9 (1), S. 1-33. DOI: 10.1515/pr-2013-0001
Abstract: The field of linguistic politeness has of late experienced a renewed interest in conceptualizations of one of its core concepts, face. Since the publication of Brown and Levinson’s formative paper in 1978 and the subsequent application of its tenets, politeness scholars, mainly Asian and non-Anglo, have raised concerns regarding the suitability of Brown and Levinson’s conceptualization of face to their respective cultures (Wierzbicka 1985; Matsumoto 1988; Ide 1989; Gu 1990; Nwoye 1992; Mao 1994). Different options were put forth to solve what was seen by many as a fundamental flaw of the model, from culture-specific reconceptualizations (Sifianou 1992; Strecker 1993; Bravo 1999) to elaborations (O’Driscoll 1996; Terkourafi 2008) or simplifications (Bousfield 2008). Some (Bargiela-Chiappini 2003; Locher and Watts 2005), have argued for a return to the Goffmanian essence of face. Yet, others, Arundale (2006, 2009, 2010), have posited new approaches to face inspired by more current models of communication based on the dyad and on social constructionist premises or have come up with discursive accounts of face (O’Driscoll 2011, Sifianou 2011). Furthermore, there seems to be a consensus that to come to grips with an understanding of face, it has to be studied on its own right, aside from politeness (Bargiela Chiappini and Haugh 2009; Haugh and Bargiela-Chiappini 2010). This renewed interest in face has coincided with the advent, albeit with some delay, of the discursive turn within politeness scholarship. The discursive turn refers to the strong trend that emerged toward the end of the 20th century to reconfigure the subject as something socio-cultural and socio-historical: an unfinished product of discourse (Benwell and Stokoe 2006). Its impact on im/politeness scholarship has been manifold. Among the many effects, it has had important repercussions for the relationship between face and identity, the focus of this special issue.
2012
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(2012): Using Goffman's theories of social interaction to reflect first-time mothers' experiences with the social norms of infant feeding. In: Qualitative health research 22 (10), S. 1345-1354. DOI: 10.1177/1049732312451873
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22785628 Abstract: Infant feeding, particularly breastfeeding, is an important public health issue because early feeding methods have been shown to influence health throughout childhood. We investigated how social norms influence first-time mothers' decisions around feeding methods. We conducted two in-depth interviews with 11 first-time mothers, the first 3 weeks after birth and the second 3 months following birth. We analyzed interview data using a third-level, thematic analysis, using Goffman's theories of social interaction to guide our analysis. Our results highlighted several issues surrounding breastfeeding in modern society. We propose that nursing mothers are conscious of adhering to social norms of being a good mother, but must also cope with societal views about presenting normal appearances when they need to feed their babies in public.
Keywords: Adult, Australia, Breast Feeding/psychology, Female, Goffman, Gruppennorm, Humans, Infant, Infant Food, Interpersonal Relations, Mothers/psychology, Normenwandel, Psychological Theory, Qualitative research, Social Control, Informal, Social Identification, Soziale Normen, Spezifika von Menschen, Stereotyping, Theory of interaction (Goffman), Young Adult 2011
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(2011): The con man as model organism. The methodological roots of Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical self. In: History of the Human Sciences 24 (2), S. 138-154. DOI: 10.1177/0952695111398828
Abstract: This article offers a historical analysis of the relationship between the practice of participant-observation among American sociologists and Erving Goffman's dramaturgical model of the self. He was a social scientist who privileged ethnography in the field over the laboratory experiment, the survey questionnaire, or the mental test. His goal was a natural history of communication among humans. Rather than rely upon standardizing technologies for measurement, Goffman tried to obtain accurate recordings of human behavior through secretive observations. During the 1950s, he conducted three major studies as a participant-observer, disguised from those studied through insincere performances. As originally presented, his dramaturgical theory did not draw upon the theater as the governing metaphor, but rather the confidence game. It is suggested that Goffman's writings exemplify what Gerd Gigerenzer calls the tools-to-theories heuristic. Goffman's depiction of the confidence man's behavior closely mirrored how he and his fellow sociologists described the practice of participant-observation. Both were represented as embedded and attentive yet coolly detached observers skilled at playing different roles as the situation necessitated. The similarities between his own professional behavior and the activities of the confidence man may have suggested to Goffman the latter as a model for human nature
2010
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(2010): Face in interaction. In: Journal of Pragmatics 42 (8), S. 2073-2077. DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2009.12.013
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2009.12.013 Abstract: Face has become firmly established as a key concept not only in pragmatics but also in anthropology, sociolinguistics, communication studies, sociology, psychology, and other related fields. Yet while it was Goffman (1955) who first introduced the notion, it has been Brown and Levinson’s (1987) application of face in the context of politeness theory that has dominated much of the debate thus far. Such discussions have often centred on the validity of Brown and Levinson’s notion of face for explicating politeness across various cultural contexts (Gu, 1990; Ide, 1989; Matsumoto, 1988; Nwoye, 1992; Pizziconi, 2003). The continuing controversy as to whether or not honorifics in Modern Standard Japanese are indeed examples of a failure of Brown and Levinson’s theory is a case in point. On the one hand, there is the often cited argument by Matsumoto (1988) that ‘‘what is of paramount importance to a Japanese is not his/her territory [negative face], but the position in relation to others in the group and his/her acceptance by others’’ (p. 405). On the other hand, other scholars have argued that Brown and Levinson’s notion of face can in fact be applied to the study of honorifics, and thus politeness, in Modern Standard Japanese (Fukada and Asato, 2004; Fukushima, 2000; Ishiyama, 2009; Usami, 2002). In these latter approaches, however, Brown and Levinson’s notions of positive and negative face are reduced to an undifferentiated notion that can be ‘‘lost’’ or ‘‘saved’’ (Haugh, 2005:44). It appears that what may actually be fuelling such (endless) controversies is the continued conflation of politeness with face. In this special issue, then, while acknowledging the important role face plays in politeness and impoliteness research, it is suggested that the time has come for face to be theorized on its own terms. In this way, echoing Bargiela-Chiappini’s (2003) re-opening of discussion about face, (new) insights may be gained into these (old) debates.
Keywords: Angesicht, Brown, Brown and Levinson's model, Face, Face (general), Gesichtswahrung, Goffman, Höflichkeit, Höflichkeitsforschung, Honorifics, (Im)Politeness Research, Levinson, Linguistik, Politeness, Politeness Theory, Soziale Angemessenheit, Sprachgebrauch, Überblick, Übersicht zu Politeness Theory 2007
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(2007): A Concept of Social Integration. In: Philosophical Psychology 20 (5), S. 579-593. DOI: 10.1080/09515080701549314
Abstract: Clear definitions of alienation and solidarity are needed as a step toward an explicit theory of social integration. The idea of alienation has played a key role in the development of sociology, but it's meaning has never been clear. Both theories and empirical studies confound relational-dispositional, cognitive-emotional and/or interpersonal-societal components. This essay proposes definitions that follow from the work of Erving Goffman and others. Goffman's idea of "co-presence'' implies a model of solidarity as mutual awareness to the point of merging consciousness. It appears that this concept of solidarity could be the main component of shared context, consensus, genuine love and social facts. Two empirical approaches are described, one with moment by moment analysis of dialogue, the other using sample surveys. With the use of mathematical notation, the survey method might be used to analyze social facts. The model could also form the basis for an explicit and testable theory of social integration.
Keywords: alienation, Entfremdung, Erving Goffman, Gegenseitigkeit, Gemeinsamkeit, Goffman, Gruppenverhalten / Joint Action, INTEGRATION, Intentionalität, Joint Action / Collective Agency, kollektive Intentionalität, Modelle/Theorien, mutual awareness, social integration, Solidarität, solidarity, Soziale Integration, Soziologische Entfremdungstheorien, Theory of interaction (Goffman) 2004
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(2004): Die Stimme der Medien. Wiesbaden: SpringerVSKeywords: Goffman
2001
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(2001): Simulation, theory, and the frame problem. The interpretive moment. In: Philosophical Psychology 14 (2), S. 141-153. DOI: 10.1080/09515080120051535
Abstract: The theory-theory claims that the explanation and prediction of behavior works via the application of a theory, while the simulation theory claims that explanation works by putting ourselves in others' places and noting what we would do. On either account, in order to develop a prediction or explanation of another person's behavior, one first needs to have a characterization of that person's current or recent actions. Simulation requires that I have some grasp of the other person's behavior to project myself upon; whereas theorizing requires a subject matter to theorize about. The frame problem shows that multiple, true characterizations are possible for any behavior or situation. However, only one or a few of these characterizations are relevant to explaining or predicting behavior. Since different characterizations of a behavior lead to different predictions or explanations, much of the work of interpersonal interpretation is done in the process of finding this characterization - that is, prior to either theorizing or simulating. Moreover, finding this characterization involves extensive knowledge of the physical, cultural, and social worlds of the persons involved.
1983
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(1983): The Interaction Order. In: American Sociological Review 48 (1), S. 1-17. DOI: 10.2307/2095141
Abstract: [book review] Abstract of the reviewed publication: For an evening's hour, it is given to each current president of the Association to hold captive the largest audience of colleagues that sociology can provide. For an hour then, within the girdle of these walls, a wordy pageantry is reenacted. A sociologist you have selected from a very short list takes to the center of this vasty Hilton field on a hobbyhorse of his own choosing. (One is reminded that the sociologically interesting thing about Hamlet is that every year no high school in the English-speaking world has trouble finding some clown to play him.) In any case, it seems that presidents of learned societies are well enough known about something to be elected because of it. Taking office, they find a podium attached, along with encouragement to demonstrate that they are indeed obsessed by what their election proved they were already known to be obsessed by. Election winds them up and sets them loose to set their record straight: they rise above restraint and replay it. For Association presidents are led to feel that they are representative of something, and that this something is just what their intellectual community wants represented and needs representing. Preparing and then presenting their addresses, presidents come to feel that they are temporarily guardians of their discipline. However large or oddly shaped the hall, their self swells out to fill it. Nor do narrow disciplinary concerns set limits. Whatever the public issues of the day, the speaker's discipline is shown to have incisive bearing on them. Moreover, the very occasion seems to make presidential speakers dangerously at one with themselves; warmed by the celebration they give without stint, sidetracking their prepared address with parenthetical admissions, obirer dicta, ethical and- political asides and other medallions of belief. And once again there occurs that special flagrancy of high office: the indulgence of selfcongratulation in public. What this dramaturgy is supposed to bring is flesh to bones, confronting the reader's image of a person with the lively impression created when the words come from a body not a page. What this dramaturgy puts at risk is the remaining illusions listeners have concerning their profession. Take comfort, my friends, that although you are once again to witness the passion of the podium, ours is the discipline, the model of analysis, for which ceremonies are data as well as duty, for which talk provides conduct to observe as well as opinion to consider. Indeed, one might want to argue that the interesting matter for all of us here (as all of us know) is not what I will come to say, but what you are doing here listening to me saying it.
1982
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(1982): Das Individuum im öffentlichen Austausch. Mikrostudien zur öffentlichen Ordnung. 1. Aufl.. Frankfurt am Main: SuhrkampKeywords: Disziplin, Favoriten, Gesellschaft, Goffman, Individuum, Interaktion, Interaktionstheorie, Kommunikation, Modelle/Theorien, öffentliche Ordnung, Öffentlicher Raum, Ordnung, Soziale Angemessenheit, Soziale Rolle, soziales Verhalten, Sozialpsychologie, Soziologie, Theory of interaction (Goffman), Zwischenmenschliche Beziehung / Öffentlichkeit