Goffman and dramaturgy

Andrea Whittle

Chapter 1.15 in Elgar Encyclopedia of Strategy as Practice, 2025, pp 62-66 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Erving Goffman (1922–1982) was one of the most influential sociologists of all time. Among other things, he is well-known for his theory of ‘dramaturgy’, which uses the metaphor of the theatre to view the social world as like a ‘performance’, complete with actors and audiences and a frontstage and backstage. His ideas about dramaturgy were developed in his 1959 book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. This book also popularized the term ‘impression management’ (Goffman, 1959: 203), a concept which has ‘taken off’ in the study of business, management and organization studies. Goffman's dramaturgical perspective is especially relevant for SAP because Goffman was centrally concerned with understanding practices of social interaction. For SAP scholars, many strategic settings can be illuminated using Goffman's dramaturgical perspective, such as an investor relations presentation, a boardroom meeting, or a press conference. Written texts, such as annual reports and strategic plans, can also be studied using a dramaturgical perspective. Goffman also offered a plethora of useful analytical concepts for studying interactional practices, including (but not limited to) front and back regions, performance teams, disruptive events, dramatic realization and idealization, audience segregation, misrepresentations, discrepant roles and defensive and protective practices.

Keywords: Erving Goffman; Actor; Dramaturgy; Performance; Stage; Practices (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035315956
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781035315963.00022 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:22511_16

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jack Sweeney ().