Micro-Recognition - Erving Goffman as Recognition Thinker

 

The purpose of this article is to present, develop and exemplify the argument that Erving Goffman can be regarded as an important yet somewhat overlooked contributor to recognition theory in contemporary sociology. Despite often being neglected in this respect, this article provides an interpretation of Goffman as a major recognition theorist on the micro-level of social analysis by way of his ritual metaphor.

Erving Goffman's sociology is conventionally approached and appreciated primarily through his famous dramaturgical metaphor that describes and comprehends social life through the analytical lens of the theatre where people are seen as manipulative actors concerned with their own self-presentations and impression managements. Throughout especially the earlier parts of his work, Goffman however also advanced a much more Durkheimian inspired view of social life that rests on the idea that human everyday encounters are characterised as much by rituals and ritual care than by cynical or shallow self-presentations. The main content of this ritual metaphor therefore consists of the notion that a variety of almost unnoticed minor courtesies and microscopic civilities such as facework and civil inattention guide the conduct of people in many of their face-to-face encounters with each other.

This article therefore shows how Goffman may in fact supplement many of the most fashionable and celebrated contemporary recognition theories as advanced by e.g. Nancy Fraser, Charles Taylor or Axel Honneth and fill out some of the blind spots and rectify certain shortcomings of these perspectives when it comes to analyzing and appreciating the micro-realm of social life. Contrary to many of these theories - which are primarily concerned with either philosophical or abstract reasoning, macro-structural or macro-sociological recognition claims and all contain a certain political or moral edge - Goffman rather provides a much more descriptive and micro-sociological account of the workings and necessity of recognition. In his ritual metaphorical perspective, social interaction to a large extent consists of continuous chains of reciprocation rituals and society as such is held together as a moral and normative order by a multitude of such minor courtesies and civilities.

Based on this, the authors conclude that Goffman's perspective on recognition may fruitfully be seen as an expression of a micro-functionalist perspective focused on the maintenance of social order.