Week 5 post- Goffman

Fitting in with the apparent theme... I also have no idea what i am doing with this whole blog thing and I'm not sure this will even post in the right place... but here goes nothing!

This weeks reading is 'The Nature of Deference and Demeanor' by Goffman and focuses on the individual and how the individual or 'self' comes to be produced in certain interactions through specific social processes.

One way in which a 'self' is established in the social world is, according to Goffman through deference. Deference is the action through which something is symbolically conveyed by way of its appreciation between one individual and a recipient/s, there by affirming the relationship between the individual and the recipient. This affirmation can be through gestures, rituals, or a symbol that the recipient has taken to mean an affirmation of a particular relationship between themselves and the individual. It is the deference between individuals that Goffman is interested in this article.

Demeanor on the other hand is that 'ceremonial behavior' of an individual who expresses who they want to be seen as 'being' through the way in which they dress and present themselves. This 'presentation of self' therefore allows an individual to have a sort of control over the way in which society perceives them to be, through presenting themselves a certain way. This however is also coupled with the interaction of the individual with society as one cannot establish a certain kind of 'self' without others affirming that they perceive that a specific individual possess the certain kinds of attributes that they are displaying.

The relationship between 'Deference' and 'Demeanor' is where the act through which an individual conveys or does not convey deference to other individuals, and as a result of this lack of deference expresses that they are not of good demeanor (or vice versa). For example using patient-doctor relationships, a doctor may have a complain that his patients do not bath before coming in for an examination- where bathing is a kind of deference to the doctor. In this same way not bathing means that the patient is presenting themselves with an unclean, unkempt demeanor.