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Communication Conduct in an Island Community
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Canadian-born Erving Goffman (1922–1982) was the twentieth century’s most important sociologist writing in English. His 1953 dissertation is published here for the first time, on the hundredth anniversary of his birth. The remarkable study, based on fieldwork on a remote Scottish island, presents in embryonic form the full spread of Goffman’s thought. Framed as a “report on a study of conversational interaction,” the dissertation lingers on the modest talk of island “crofters.” It is trademark Goffman: ambitious, unconventional in form, and brimmed with big-picture insight. The thesis is that social order is made and re-made in communication—the “interaction order” he re-visited in a famous and final talk before his 1982 death. The dissertation is, as Yves Winkin writes in a new introduction, the “Rosetta stone for his entire work.” It was here, in 360 dense pages, that Goffman revealed, quietly, his peerless sensitivity to the invisible wireframes of everyday life.

Table of Contents

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  1. Cover
  2. open access
  1. Title Page, Copyright
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  1. Dissertation Record
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  1. Contents
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  1. The Cradle: Introduction to the mediastudies.press edition
  2. Yves Winkin
  3. pp. x-xxii
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  1. Title Page, Dissertation Record
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  1. Introduction
  2. pp. 4-9
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  1. Part One: The Context
  1. Chapter I: Dixon
  2. pp. 11-21
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  1. Part Two: The Sociological Model
  1. Chapter II: Social Order and Social Interaction
  2. pp. 23-28
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  1. Part Three: On Information About One’s Self
  1. Chapter III: Linguistic Behavior
  2. pp. 30-33
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  1. Chapter IV: Expressive Behavior
  2. pp. 34-45
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  1. Chapter V: The Management of Information About Oneself
  2. pp. 46-55
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  1. Chapter VI: Indelicate Communication
  2. pp. 56-59
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  1. Chapter VII: Sign Situations
  2. pp. 60-65
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  1. Part Four: The Concrete Units of Conversational Communication
  1. Chapter VIII: Introduction
  2. pp. 66-76
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  1. Chapter IX: Social Occasion
  2. pp. 77-82
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  1. Chapter X: Accredited Participation and Interplay
  2. pp. 83-88
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  1. Chapter XI: Expression During Interplay
  2. pp. 89-96
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  1. Chapter XII: Interchange of Messages
  2. pp. 97-104
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  1. Chapter XIII: Polite Interchanges
  2. pp. 105-113
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  1. Chapter XIV: The Organization of Attention
  2. pp. 114-118
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  1. Chapter XV: Safe Supplies
  2. pp. 119-124
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  1. Chapter XVI: On Kinds of Exclusion from Participation
  2. pp. 125-131
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  1. Chapter XVII: Dual Participation
  2. pp. 132-137
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  1. Part Five: Conduct During Interplay
  1. Chapter XVIII: Introduction: Euphoric and Dysphoric Interplay
  2. pp. 139-140
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  1. Chapter XIX: Involvement
  2. pp. 141-147
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  1. Chapter XX: Faulty Persons
  2. pp. 148-155
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  1. Chapter XXI: Involvement Poise
  2. pp. 156-170
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  1. Chapter XXII: On Projected Selves
  2. pp. 171-189
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  1. Chapter XXIII: The Management of Projected Selves
  2. pp. 190-197
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  1. Interpretations and Conclusions
  2. pp. 198-209
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  1. Bibliography
  2. pp. 210-215
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