Happy Birthday Erving Goffman! A note from Maria and Nils

Dear Lab members!

Today is an important date for all of us. One hundred years ago, one of the most idiosyncratic, innovative, and influential social thinkers was born. Erving Goffman.
We are still untangling many of the features of public & private life noticed by him. He was among the first to highlight the depth and complexity of everyday life, and to inspire efforts of methodical accounts of this complexity. Due to his spearheading efforts, ‘noticing’ became elevated as an exploratory scientific toolset; he thus laid the foundation for the enduring spirit of wonder that permeates our exploration of seemingly banal embodied minutiae of life. It is said that he neither created a consistent theory or established a school. Even if it is the case, it is clear from his texts that it was because he loved the reality of social interaction more than any of his own conceptual distinctions.
We wish us all to cherish this sincere interest and appreciation of our objects of study. May the next 100 years contribute to greater understanding, recognition, and care in the study of human action and meaning-making.

With love, Nils and Maria

P.S. We attach a photo we created a few years ago, using a neural network – Goffman’s likeness combined with a photo of a pint of beer. It references the quote, still very relevant today, found in the concluding section of Goffman’s ‘The Interaction Order’:

“Indeed I’ve heard it said that we should be glad to trade what we’ve so far produced for a few really good conceptual distinctions and a cold beer. But there’s nothing in the world we should trade for what we do have: the bent to sustain in regard to all elements of social life a spirit of unfettered, unsponsored inquiry, and the wisdom not to look elsewhere but ourselves and our discipline for this mandate.”