Module: Sociology and Everyday Life
Week 6 – Teams and Regional Behaviour
Erving Goffman – ‘The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life’
Goffman suggests that we all engage in teamwork as part of our everyday life.
When we are in groups, we assume that we back each other up.
Teams
The idea of group dynamics and how we relate to the audience.
Goffman views people as if they are acting on stage.
Often, we don’t do performances alone – we group together with other people.
As a team we try to define the situation – how we react to the places we are
in, how we present our idealised version of reality.
We hope that the audience takes in our idealised version of reality.
Example: football team – the manager will always stick by their team because
he doesn’t want to undermine that they are good players.
Goffman suggests that undertakers sometimes go through the process of a
performance where the audience are not there to see it.
When we are involved in a team, we are involved in reciprocal performances.
We don’t have to be the same class, gender, age etc. The team can be made
up of different kinds of people.
Example: parents backing each other up because they have to come across
as a united front.
Getting your story straight to maintain a consistent line.
Teams will hide the arguments they’ve had between each other because you
want to show everyone that you are a solid unit.
Goffman makes a distinction between ‘team’ and ‘clique’.
Clique – a group of people who are of a similar background. They protect
themselves from other people of other statuses. They protect their own
interests.
, There is often a team director – this is an important role. They make sure that
people are playing the part they should be playing. The director can occupy
an intermediary role. They make sure that the whole performance runs
smoothly.
It has the character of a secret society – there are secrets that have to be
kept.
Regions and Region Behaviour
The world we perform in is divided into two spaces.
Front stage is where we do the performance e.g. shop floor.
Back stage – the places where the audience are not allowed to occupy e.g.
kitchen, stockroom. This is where the secret is kept. This is where negative
things may be said about the audience. It can also be the place where they
plan, develop and rehearse for a better performance.
We become much more relaxed in the backstage area.
Regions
The ‘outside’ – a region that is neither front nor back.
Audience segregation – example: things that have happened in school that
you don’t want other people to know about.
Question on American College Girls
Goffman keeps returning to the example of the behaviour of American College Girls
during the Present of Everyday Life.
(1) Do you regard the analysis in these extracts as ‘sexist’? Do women ever
assist in massaging men’s egos?
Women viewed themselves as being the weaker sex back then. There were
no career choices for women, so they had little choice but to adopt this role in
order to have a more comfortable life.
(2) In the final quote, one girl describes how the practice of playing dumb “left a
bad taste in the mouth”. Why then did she do it? What strategies could she
have employed to avoid such a performance? If the boy knew she was
‘faking’, why did he not make her aware of this?
It feels like you are questioning social order by tackling these
performances.
Week 6 – Teams and Regional Behaviour
Erving Goffman – ‘The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life’
Goffman suggests that we all engage in teamwork as part of our everyday life.
When we are in groups, we assume that we back each other up.
Teams
The idea of group dynamics and how we relate to the audience.
Goffman views people as if they are acting on stage.
Often, we don’t do performances alone – we group together with other people.
As a team we try to define the situation – how we react to the places we are
in, how we present our idealised version of reality.
We hope that the audience takes in our idealised version of reality.
Example: football team – the manager will always stick by their team because
he doesn’t want to undermine that they are good players.
Goffman suggests that undertakers sometimes go through the process of a
performance where the audience are not there to see it.
When we are involved in a team, we are involved in reciprocal performances.
We don’t have to be the same class, gender, age etc. The team can be made
up of different kinds of people.
Example: parents backing each other up because they have to come across
as a united front.
Getting your story straight to maintain a consistent line.
Teams will hide the arguments they’ve had between each other because you
want to show everyone that you are a solid unit.
Goffman makes a distinction between ‘team’ and ‘clique’.
Clique – a group of people who are of a similar background. They protect
themselves from other people of other statuses. They protect their own
interests.
, There is often a team director – this is an important role. They make sure that
people are playing the part they should be playing. The director can occupy
an intermediary role. They make sure that the whole performance runs
smoothly.
It has the character of a secret society – there are secrets that have to be
kept.
Regions and Region Behaviour
The world we perform in is divided into two spaces.
Front stage is where we do the performance e.g. shop floor.
Back stage – the places where the audience are not allowed to occupy e.g.
kitchen, stockroom. This is where the secret is kept. This is where negative
things may be said about the audience. It can also be the place where they
plan, develop and rehearse for a better performance.
We become much more relaxed in the backstage area.
Regions
The ‘outside’ – a region that is neither front nor back.
Audience segregation – example: things that have happened in school that
you don’t want other people to know about.
Question on American College Girls
Goffman keeps returning to the example of the behaviour of American College Girls
during the Present of Everyday Life.
(1) Do you regard the analysis in these extracts as ‘sexist’? Do women ever
assist in massaging men’s egos?
Women viewed themselves as being the weaker sex back then. There were
no career choices for women, so they had little choice but to adopt this role in
order to have a more comfortable life.
(2) In the final quote, one girl describes how the practice of playing dumb “left a
bad taste in the mouth”. Why then did she do it? What strategies could she
have employed to avoid such a performance? If the boy knew she was
‘faking’, why did he not make her aware of this?
It feels like you are questioning social order by tackling these
performances.
