November 28, 2004
Erving Goffman: "On Face-Work"
Goffman, Erving. 1963. "On Face-Work." Interaction Ritual New York: Anchor Books.
Synopsis:
In "On Face-Work," Goffman articulates how people negotiate face in everyday social interaction. Some definitions are key:
- "Face is an image of self delineated in terms of approved social attributes" (5)
- line - "a pattern of verbal and nonverbal acts by which he expresses his view of the situation and through this his evaluation of the participants, especially himself" (5)
- face-work - "actions taken by a person to make whatever he is doing consistent with face" (12)
- self: 1) "image pieced together from teh expressive implications of the full flow of events in an undertaking" and "kind of player in a ritual game who copes honorably or dishonorably, diplomatically or undiplomatically, with the judgmental contingencies of the situation" (31)
Goffman argues that the flow of events produces face (7). Maintaining face feels good - we have an emotional attachment to the face that we maintain. Disruptions of this, or losing face, result in a loss of the internal emotional support that is protecting oneself in a social situation (9). In order to face-save, one must be socially perceptive (13).
Face saving is not just a process of the social actor, but of the audience as well. There are social protocols for helping someone maintain and save face, most notably avoidance mechanisms, overcompensating and apology.
There is a ritual around correcting the way in which face is managed socially - challenge, offering, acceptance and thanks (22). This helps maintain the "expressive order" (19). Tact is part of helping embarrassing moments of losing face. The language of "hint" is critical to protect tact (30). Of course, all of this is culturally defined and the relationship between tact and face management often collides when different cultures meet. "Trouble is caused by a person who cannot be relied upon to play the face-saving game" (31).
Relevence:
The process of managing face is so critical to everyday social interaction, but this face-work does not translate online. Thus, what are the mechanisms by which we do face-work to help maintain social order? The formalized process of this eliminates "tact" and is part of what makes the digital world appear so autistic in nature. Face-work cannot be simply articulated because so much of it is constructed around hinting. Furthermore, there are easy cultural collisions that complicate everything.
While Goffman doesn't bring Mauss into this conversation, there are deep connections between this and Mauss's notions of gifting.
Category: sociology
Posted by zephoria at November 28, 2004 9:46 PM
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