S1 Covercă Francesca (1) [615570]

UNIVERSITATEA DIN BUCURE
Ș
TI

FACULTATEA DE SOCIOLOGIE
Ș
I ASISTEN
Ț
Ă SOCIALĂ

SPECIALIZAREA SOCIOLOGIE

ERVING GOFFMAN – STIGMA

“DEVIATIONS AND DEVIANCE”

DATA: STUDENTĂ:

18.01.2019 COVERCĂ FRANCESCA-NICOLE

Erving
Goffman
was
an
American
sociologist
and
author
from
Canada.
He
was
born

in
1922
in
Mannville,
Alberta,
Canada
and
died
in
1982
in
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania.
In

2007
he
was
listed
as
the
6th
the
most
quoted
intellectual
in
the
human
and
social
sciences
of

“The Times Higher Education Guide”.

In
​
Stigma:
Notes
on
the
Management
of
Spoiled
Identity
​
(1963),
Erving
Goffman

talks
about
the
shame
that
people
feel
when
they
fail
to
meet
other
people’s
standards
and
the

fear
of
being
discredited,
which
makes
individuals
not
to
reveal
their
imperfections.
Here,

Goffman
uses
especially
autobiographies
and
case
studies
to
analyse
stigmatised
people’s

feelings
about
themselves
and
their
relationships
with
“normal”
people.
He
investigates
the

methods that stigmatised people use to tackle the rejection of others.

In
the
last
chapter,
​
Deviations
and
Deviance
​
,
Erving
Goffman
talks
about
“the

dynamics of shameful differentness”
seen as a common attribute of social life.

1
In
some
small,
close
groups,
confirmed
positive
positions
may
be
correlated
with

deviations,
while
in
large
groups,
the
eminent
may
find
he
has
to
fully
comply
with
the
norms

of
the
group
he
is
part
of.
The
situation
is
somewhat
similar
in
case
of
ca
physically
sick

member
if
he
is
too
concerned
with
his
sickness
status.
Therefore,
the
eminent
and
the
sick

member
can
be
free
to
be
deviators
since
their
deviance
can
be
completely
reduced,
which

does not lead to a new identification.

Almost
every
small
group
or
community
has
cases
of
deviation
and
the
deviator
plays

a
special
role,
becoming
a
kind
of
group
emblem,
even
if
he
does
not
have
the
respect

accorded
to
full-fledged
members.
This
person
is
regarded
as
a
mascot
of
the
group
although

he
or
she
is
competent
to
be
a
normal
member
of
it.
“The
village
idiot,
the
smil-town
drunk

and
the
platoon
clown
are
traditional
examples.”
He
can
be
called
an
“in-group
deviant”
to

2
point
out
that
he
is
deviant
corresponding
to
a
specific
group,
not
only
norms.
When
the

in-group
deviant
is
attacked
by
those
outside
the
group,
the
other
members
can
support
him,

but when the isolation group is attacked, he is more likely to take his own battle.

It
has
been
proposed
that
in
small
groups,
the
in-group
deviant
can
be
distinguished

from
the
other
deviators
because
he
is
inclined
towards
the
moral
life
that
members
support

on
average.
When
the
reference
system
is
transferred
from
a
local
community
to
the
entire

world,
there
is
a
significant
change
in
the
assortment
and
sense
of
deviations.
Individuals
who

1

​
Erving, Goffman,
​
Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity
​
, London, Penguin, 1963, p. 141.

2

​
Ibidem,
​
p. 142.

1

refuse
to
accept
their
social
place
represents
the
“disaffiliates”.
Those
whose
activity
is

concentrated
in
a
certain
place
are
called
cultists,
and
those
reunited
in
a
sub-community
may

be called social deviators.

Erving
Goffman
sustains
that
if
there
was
a
field
of
analysis
called
“deviance”,
the

social
deviators
would
be
its
nucleus.
Drug
addicts,
delinquents,
criminals
are
people

considered
to
be
engaged
somewhat
against
social
order,
showing
a
lack
of
respect
for
their

betters
and
representing
the
failure
in
motivational
schemes
of
society.
Social
deviants

frequently
feel
that
they
are
not
just
equal
to
normal
people,
but
better
and
that
life
they
have

now is better than what they would have had if they were different.

Two
types
of
deviants
have
been
highlighted
(in-group
deviants
and
social
deviants)

and
two
neighbouring
types
of
social
category
(ethnic
and
racial
minority
groups
that
share

history
and
culture,
and
members
of
the
lower
classes).
There
are
deviant
communities

whose
members,
especially
outside
their
environment,
are
not
too
interested
about
their

acceptance
in
society.
Besides
the
four
categories
mentioned,
there
are
disadvantaged
persons

who
are
not
stigmatised
at
all,
such
as
“someone
whose
physical
handicap
(for
example,
a

mild
hearing
disability)
has
interfered
with
his
life,
even
though
everyone,
including
himself,

remains unaware that he has a physical disability.”

3
Erving
Goffman
argued
that
stigmatized
people
have
enough
in
common
to
justify

their
classification
together
for
analysis
purposes,
then
referring
to
the
traditional
areas
of

social
issues,
racial
and
ethnic
relations,
social
pathology
and
deviance,
highlighting

something that all of these have in common.

Knowing
the
areas
can,
analytically,
help
us
to
see
the
differences
between
them,
but

maybe,
in
any
case
it
would
be
best
to
keep
​
the
old
substantive
areas
,
so
it
can
be
evident

4
that
each
of
them
is
just
a
field
to
which
multiple
perspectives
should
be
applied
and
that
the

evolution
of
these
analytical
perspectives
does
not
come
from
those
who
reduce
their
interest

to one substantive area.

Besides
Erving
Goffman,
a
Professor
of
Sociology
from
Northern
Kentucky

University,
Joan
Ferrante,
also
spoke
about
deviance.
She
defines
deviance
as
“any
behaviour

or
physical
appearance
that
is
socially
challenged
and/or
condemned
because
it
departs
from

3

​
Ibidem
​
, p. 146.

4

​
Ibidem.

2

the
norms
and
expectations
of
some
group.
”,
this
definition
suggesting
that
what
makes

5
something
deviant
is
the
existence
of
a
social
public
that
sees
a
behaviour
as
deviant
and
acts

to discourage it.

Joan
Ferrante
argues
that
deviance
is
something
granted.
For
some
sociologists,
the

critical
agent
is
not
the
one
who
violates
the
norms,
but
the
social
group’s
reaction
that

eventually establish if a behaviour is deviant.

Émile
Durkheim
(1901)
claims
that
the
ideas
about
deviance
vary,
but
this

phenomenon
is
present
in
all
societies,
defining
deviance
as
actions
that
insult
collective

norms
and
expectations.
Even
in
an
apparently
ideal
society,
actions
that
people
consider

insignificant
can
be
found
as
crimes,
and
to
explain
this,
Durkheim
(1901)
made
a

comparison
between
a
society
with
seemingly
exemplary
people
and
the
“perfect
and
right”

person.

Just
as
“perfect
and
right”
people
severely
judge
their
imperfections,
so
do
those
in

the
groups
considered
exemplary.
Thus,
what
makes
an
action
seem
deviant
is
not
the
action

itself, but rather the fact that the group defines it as something unsafe for its prosperity.

Durkheim
also
said
that
a
group
which
existed
too
much
without
noticing
the

deviance
or
doing
something
about
it,
could
lose
its
group
status,
and
maybe
that
is
the
reason

why
people
find
the
aspects
of
other
cultures
as
deviant,
this
act
strengthening
their
cultural

or national identity.

To
answer
the
question
“Who
defines
what
is
deviant?”,
many
sociologists

concentrate
on
how
certain
groups
(like
inexperienced
workers),
behaviors
(like
child
abuse),

conditions
(like
pollution)
or
artifacts
(like
tattoos
or
piercings)
are
defined
as
problems.

Sociologists explore, especially, claims makers and claims-making activities.

Claims
makers
are
the
individuals
who
promote
claims
and
who
tend
to
win
somehow

if
the
targeted
audience
find
their
claims
as
true.
Claims
makers
enclose
government
officials,

advertisers,
scientists,
professors
and
other
collaborators.
Claims-making
activities
are

actions
managed
to
captivate
attention
to
a
claim,
actions
such
as
“demanding
services,
filling

out
forms,
lodging
complaints,
filing
lawsuits,
calling
press
conferences,
writing
letters
of

protest,
passing
resolutions,
publishing
exposés,
placing
ads
in
newspapers,…setting
up
picket

lines or boycotts”

6
5

​
Joan, Ferrante,
​
Seeing Sociology: An Introduction
​
, Canada, Cengage Learning, 2010, p. 186.

6

​
Ibidem
​
, p. 189,
​
Apud
​
, Spector and Kitsuse, 1977, p. 79.

3

Examining
the
claims-making
activities
can
help
us
understand
why
smoking
in

public
locations
has
been
generally
forbidden
in
the
United
States.
Before
1980,
people
were

free to smoke anywhere in public, today such behaviour being inconceivable.

4