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Erving Goffman (June 11, 1922November 19, 1982), was a Jewish Canadian sociologist and writer. Goffman received his B.A. at the University of Toronto in 1945 and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1949 and 1953 respectively.

Author of the seminal text Asylums, for which he gathered information at the National Institute of Mental Health in Washington, D.C., he describes "institutionalization" as a response by patients to the bureaucratic structures of a hospital setting. Goffman uses phenomenology to understand how humans perceive the interactions that they observe and take part in. To Goffman there is no real capital-T truth, but interpretations that are real to each individual.

Goffman's greatest contribution to social theory is his formulation of symbolic interaction in his 1959 book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Although Goffman is often characterized as a symbolic interactionist, he tried to correct the flaws of symbolic interactionism. For Goffman, society is not a homogeneous creature. We must act differently in different settings. The context we have to judge is not society at large, but the specific context. Goffman suggests that life is a theater, but we also need a parking lot and a cloak room: there is a wider context lying beyond the face-to-face symbolic interaction.

He also authored Frame analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. Many of his works form the basis for the sociological and media studies concept of framing.

Personal details

Goffman was born to parents Max and Anne Goffman in Manville, Alberta June 1, 1922. He died a widower, leaving behind one son. During his lifetime he was awarded the following:

During his career Goffman served at the following institutions:

  • University of Chicago, Division of Social Sciences, Chicago, assistant, 1952-53, resident associate, 1953-54
  • National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland, visiting scientist, 1954-57
  • University of California, Berkeley, assistant professor, 1958-59, associate professor, 1959-62, professor of sociology, 1962-68
  • University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin Professor of Anthropology and Sociology, 1968-82

Major works

See also

External link

da:Erving Goffman de:Erving Goffman fr:Erving Goffman he:ארווינג גופמן

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