Goffman Meets Bauman at the Shopping Mall - en diakron konfrontation om selv, samfund og sociologi

 

This article offers a diachronic confrontation between the sociological perspectives of Erving Goffman and Zygmunt Bauman respectively. Due to their different locations in the history of sociology as well as their diametrically opposed locations regarding substantial discussions within sociology, the confrontation points to a variety of differences that may at first seem irreconcilable but which, paradoxically, may end up supporting each other in certain specific thematic or empirical discussions. Some of these substantial differences pertain to the prioritized view of sociology (middleclass versus underclass/underdog), the nature of self (shallow versus substantial/moral), the nature of society (distance versus proximity), and the role of political sympathies in sociology (neutral versus political). The author ends the chapter by postulating that despite their many obvious and fundamental differences, Goffman and Bauman may, in fact, offer mutually complementary and supportive views on how to understand the nature of society as well as the nature of sociology, with special reference to the topic of dehumanization on micro and macro levels respectively and to the mission of demasking dehumanized aspects of social reality.