Reconstructing Social Theory, History and Practice by Dahms Harry F.;Lybeck Eric R.;

Author:Dahms, Harry F.;Lybeck, Eric R.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
Published: 2016-11-21T00:00:00+00:00

Goffman highlights the sociological implications of the fact that human selves are regional entities. Spatiotemporally positioned actors, as they navigate their way through the social world, move not only from situation to situation but also from region to region. A region, in the Goffmanian sense, can be defined as any place whose existence is restricted by barriers, as well as kept alive by processes, of perception. Crucial, in this respect, is Goffman’s distinction between ‘front regions’ and ‘back regions’. The former are produced by our public – and, thus, essentially observable – activities. The latter are generated by our private – and, hence, largely concealed – activities. In most societies, especially in highly differentiated ones, we are required to travel back and forth between our ‘front regions’ and our ‘back regions’.

 What needs to be studied with more precision, however, is the extent to which the boundaries between ‘front regions’ and ‘back regions’ are increasingly blurred, particularly in complex societies, in which actors are expected to be able to take on numerous roles – often in a contradictory and tension-laden manner. Preparative activities can take place in ‘front regions’ (for instance, studying for an exam in a library, training for a public competition in a park, doing homework at a school, etc.). Performative activities can take place in ‘back regions’ (for instance, singing under the shower, putting on a deceiving role before one’s partner in private, engaging in sexual intercourse in the domestic sphere, etc.). The picture gains an even higher level of complexity when taking into account the impact of technology – notably, of the Internet – on the degree to which the boundaries between ‘front regions’ and ‘back regions’ – and, consequently, between ‘public’ and ‘private’ – are increasingly blurred. In the ‘digital age’,49 the production, distribution and consumption of both material and symbolic goods cut across traditional social boundaries, including the ones established between ‘front regions’ and ‘back regions’. A critical sociology of the self needs to take behavioural, ideological and institutional transformations – at the micro-, meso- and macro-levels – into consideration, when aiming to capture how human actors operate in an environment shaped not only by ‘front-regional’ and ‘back-regional’ but also, to a growing extent, by ‘trans-regional’ dynamics.

Goffman underscores the sociological significance of the fact that human selves are masked – that is, self-masking – entities. In most – if not all – societies, every individual develops a public persona, which may differ – in some cases, fundamentally – from the person they are in private. The ‘social face’ that human actors take on reflects an appearance that they construct – and, frequently, have to readjust – when exposed to others in the public domains of their lives. To a large extent, the capacity to put on a social mask requires the ability to discipline one’s body, thereby mobilizing one’s dispositional resources in a socially acceptable – and, hence, context-sensitive – manner. Far from being ingrained in people’s personality, then, social masks are adapted, and can be changed, by those who make use of them in relation to particular settings.

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