Scenes of Everyday Life: Solidarity Rituals and Shared Reality Constructs in Erving Goffman's Excellent Social Psychology

Abstract

Erving Goffman was one of the leading figures in the Symbolic Interactionist movement in modern sociology and social psychology. He died in November, 1982 leaving behind a brilliant body of work which continues to be read and studied in universities around the world. From The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life to Forms of Talk and Gender Advertisements that cover subjects as diverse as self image, mental illness institutions, gambling casinos, restaurants, espionage tactics, physical deformity and surgery room conversations, Goffman's work written with sly humor and great insight expanded the paradigms of social science beyond their conventional boundaries and canons.