Pioneering Sociologist Erving Goffman Saw Magic in the Mundane

Civil inattention refers to the subtle ritual we perform when passing strangers: momentarily glancing at them (‘a mere flicker’) then conspicuously looking away, ‘like a car dipping its lights.’ This ‘slightest of interpersonal rituals’ acknowledges the other’s presence while signaling you have ‘no untoward intent nor expect to be an object of it.’ It matters because it reveals how even the most minimal interaction with strangers follows complex social rules. Violating this norm—staring too long or completely ignoring someone when acknowledgment is expected—creates discomfort because it breaks the tacit agreement about appropriate stranger interaction. Goffman’s student Carol Brooks Gardner applied this concept to catcalling, showing how lone women are often treated as ‘open persons’ exempt from civil inattention in ways that reinforce oppressive gender hierarchies.

Goffman characterized psychiatric hospitals as ‘total institutions’—places where individuals are cut off from the wider world and forced to undergo all daily routines (work, play, sleep) in the same place according to authority-imposed timetables. He argued these institutions systematically strip inmates of their ‘civilian self’ through ‘abasements, degradations, humiliations, and profanations of self’: confiscating belongings, examining and washing bodies, removing contact with the outside world. His critique revealed that many mental illness symptoms were actually ‘situational improprieties’—failures to abide by interaction norms—and that institutionalization created a vicious cycle where removing customary means of expressing emotion led patients to seize upon remaining outlets (situational improprieties), thereby appearing more mentally ill. This represents what philosopher Ian Hacking called social ‘looping’: categorizing someone as mentally ill leads them to develop more characteristics warranting that categorization.

Goffman described himself as offering merely ‘glimmerings’ about social interaction structure rather than comprehensive theory. McDonald explains this rejection was ‘itself theoretically significant’: he showed that ‘one need not articulate a grand theory of the world in order to improve our understanding of it. Indeed, such grand theorising might be premature when we haven’t yet appreciated the full complexity of even the most minute phenomena—like a person falling over in the street.’ Goffman believed there could be ‘great value in the provision of even “a single conceptual distinction”, “if it orders, and illuminates, and reflects delight in the contours of our data.”‘ This anti-systematic approach explains why many sociologists remain ambivalent about his work and philosophers often ignore him—his contributions don’t fit conventional academic expectations for foundational principles or overarching analyses, yet his insights about interaction order revealed previously hidden dimensions of social life.

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This article is rated Intermediate because while it introduces sophisticated sociological concepts—microsociology, dramaturgical analysis, face-work, stigma theory—it does so through accessible examples and clear prose. McDonald’s opening scenario (falling in public) creates immediate recognition before introducing theoretical frameworks, making abstract ideas concrete. The vocabulary includes specialized terms (ethnography, compos mentis, profanations) but most are explained contextually. The article assumes general familiarity with academic discourse and some awareness of philosophical debates (Butler’s gender theory, contemporary philosophy of language) but doesn’t require prior sociology background. The intermediate rating reflects this balance: substantive engagement with Goffman’s complex ideas presented through vivid examples (the British thigh-slapping exit ritual, blind people’s dark glasses) that make theoretical insights tangible for educated general readers interested in understanding everyday social interaction through new analytical lenses.

Lucy McDonald is a lecturer in ethics at King’s College London whose work has appeared in the Journal of Moral Philosophy and Australasian Journal of Philosophy. Her authority comes from her position at the intersection of philosophy and social theory—ethics particularly concerns norms, values, and social practices, making Goffman’s work on social norms directly relevant to her expertise. Her philosophical training enables her to situate Goffman’s insights within broader intellectual debates (comparing his approach to contemporary philosophy of language, connecting his ideas to Judith Butler’s gender theory) while her writing demonstrates deep engagement with sociological literature. The article’s sophistication in addressing Goffman’s ambiguous disciplinary status—too data-rich for pure theory, too abstract for ethnography—suggests someone familiar with methodological debates across sociology and philosophy. Her ability to make complex sociological concepts accessible while maintaining analytical rigor demonstrates both scholarly command and pedagogical skill.

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