Erving Goffman has a reputation as an intellectual maverick who did not fit neatly into any disciplinary mold. His failure to adhere to professional conventions and occasionally off-putting demeanor are mentioned as an aside that has little to do with his oversize influence on the science of society. This paper advances a thesis that Goffman’s status as the most cited American sociologist and widespread influence across social science is related to his principled refusal to fit his scholarship into prevailing scholarly canons. The argument is made that Goffman shared with his mentor, Everett Hughes, misgivings about the narrow professional focus in contemporary sociology, that his cross-disciplinary approach advanced social inquiry beyond its traditional confines, and that his colloquial style and penchant for long essays helped disseminate his ideas. The discussion starts with an overview of Goffman’s professional career, after which it moves to the reception of his ideas by fellow sociologists and the impact of his work on neighboring disciplines. The study draws on the interviews, correspondence, and other documents assembled in the Erving Goffman Archives, as well as on several social science citation indexes and datasets illuminating Goffman’s stature in various fields of scholarship.
AksnesDag W.LangfeldtLivWoutersPaul. 2019. “Citations, Citation Indicators, and Research Quality: An Overview of Basic Concepts and Theories.” SAGE Open9. doi: 10.1177/2158244019829575
2.
AlbasDaniel. 2012. “At the Convocation Goffman Said, “One Is Born Near a Granary and Spends the Rest of His Life Suppressing It.” EGA.
3.
BershadyHarold. 2009. “Erving Turned to Me and Said, ‘You Know, Elijah Anderson Is Really a Professional Sociologist, He Is Not a Professional Black.’” EGA.
4.
BesbrisEsther. 2009. “When Erving Was an Infant My Mother Nursed Us Both So We Were Bosom Buddies.” EGA.
5.
BlumerHerbert. 1936. “Social Attitudes and Nonsymbolic Interaction.” The Journal of Educational Sociology9: 515–23.
6.
BlumerHerbert. 1937. “Social Psychology.” In Man and Society, edited by SchmidtEmerson C.New York: Prentice-Hall.
7.
BlumerHerbert. 1972. Review of E. Goffman’s “Action vs. Interaction: Relations in Public—Microstudies of the Public Order by Erving Goffman.”Society9: 50–3.
8.
BornmannLutzDanielHans-Dieter. 2008. “What Do Citation Counts Measure? A Review of Studies on Citing Behavior.” Journal of Documentation64: 45–80.
9.
avanSherri. 1963. “Answer to Exam Question.” EGA.
10.
CavanSherri. 2008. “Having Been Goffman’s Student I Am Drawn to Voltaire’s Dictum, ‘To the Living We Owe Respect, to the Dead We Owe Only the Truth’.” EGA.
11.
CavanSherri. 2014. “When Erving Goffman Was a Boy: The Formative Years of a Sociological Giant.” Symbolic Interaction37 (1): 41–70.
12.
CicourelAaron. 2009. “Remembering Erving Goffman.” EGA.
13.
CollinsRandall. 1986. “The Passing of Intellectual Generations: Reflections on the Death of Erving Goffman Author(s). Sociological Theory4 (1): 106–113.
14.
CollinsRandall. 1988. “Theoretical Continuities in Goffman’s Work.” In Erving Goffman. Exploring the Interaction Order, edited by DrewP.WootonA., 41–63. Cambridge: Polity Press.
15.
CrossleyNick. 2022. “Goffman and the Sociology of the Body.” In The Routledge International Handbook of Goffman Studies, edited by JacobsenMichael H.SmithGreg, 231–41. London: Routledge.
16.
DardasLatefa AliSallamMalikWoodwardAmandaSweisNadiaSweisNarjesSawairFaleh A.2023. “Evaluating Research Impact Based on Semantic Scholar Highly Influential Citations, Total Citations, and Altmetric Attention Scores: The Quest for Refined Measures Remains Illusive.”MDPI11 (5): 1–16.
17.
DittonJason. 1980. “A Bibliographic Exegesis of Goffman’s Sociology.” In The View from Goffman, edited by DittonJason, 1–23. London: Macmillan Press.
18.
DelaneyMichael. 2014. “Goffman at Penn: Star Presence. Teacher-Mentor, Profaning Jester.” Symbolic Interaction37 (1): 87–107.
FarbermanHarvey. 1975. “Symposium on Symbolic Interaction: An Introduction.” The Sociological Quarterly16: 435–7.
24.
FineGary Alan. 1995. “Introduction.” In A Second Chicago School? The Development of a Postwar American Sociology, edited by FineGary Alan, 1–16. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
25.
FineGary Alan. 2009. “Goffman Turns to Me and Says, ‘Only a Schmuck Studies His Own Life.’” EGA.
26.
FineGary AlanManningPhilipSmithG.2000. “Introduction.” Erving Goffman, Vol. 1. Ed., edited by FineG. A.ManningP.SmithG. W. H., ix–xliv. London: Sage Publications.
FoxRenée. 2009. “Erving Goffman Was a Brilliantly Imaginative, Original Sociologist and a Pathmaking Ethnographer.”EGA.
29.
GlaserBarneyStraussAnselm. 1967. The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. Mill Valley, CA: Sociology Press.
30.
Goffman BayFrances. 2009. “At His Bar Mitzvah Erving Gave a Little Speech That He Wrote Himself and That He Called ‘Ode to Mother.’” EGA.
31.
GlockCharles. 2008. “Losing Erv, I Recognized, Would Be a Severe Blow to the Department.”EGA.
32.
GoffmanErving. 1951. “Symbols of Class Status.” The British Journal of Sociology2: 294–304.
33.
GoffmanErving. 1952. “Draft of Ph.D. Thesis Statement.” University of Chicago, Regenstein Library.
34.
GoffmanErving. 1953. “Communication Conduct in an Island Community.” A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Division of the Social for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The University of Chicago.
35.
GoffmanErving. 1961a. Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates. New York: Doubleday Anchor.
36.
GoffmanErving. 1961b. Encounters: Two Studies in the Sociology of Interaction. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc.
37.
GoffmanErving. 1963a. Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
38.
GoffmanErving. 1963b. Behavior in Public Places. Free Press.
39.
GoffmanErving1981. “A Reply to Denzin and Keller.” Contemporary Sociology10 (1): 60–8.
40.
GoffmanErving. 1983. “The Interaction Order.” American Sociological Review48 (1): 1–17.
41.
GouldnerAlvin. 1970. The Coming Crisis of Western Sociology. New York: Basic Books.
42.
GusfieldJoseph. 1995. “Preface.” In A Second Chicago School? The Development of a Postwar American Sociology, edited by FineGary Alan, ix–xvi. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
43.
GusfieldJoseph. 2008. “Erving Was a Brilliant Scholar and a Mensch.” EGA.
44.
HabensteinRobert. 2008. “He Was a Heck of a Nice Guy, Kind of Shy, and the Kids Liked Him.” EGA.
45.
HandlerRichard. 2012. “What I’m reading What’s up, Doctor Goffman? Tell us where the action is!” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute18: 179–90.
46.
Helmes-HayesRick. 1998. “Everett Hughes: Theorist of the Second Chicago School.” International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society11 (4): 621–73.
47.
HuberJoan. 2009. “Erving Goffman’s Presentation of Self as ASA President.”EGA.
48.
HughesEverett C.2009 [1963]. “Race Relations and the Sociological Imagination.” The Sociological Eye. Selected Papers, edited by HughesEverett C., 478–95. New Brunswick: Transaction Books.
49.
HughesEverett C. 2009 [1959]. “The Dual Mandate of Social Science: Remarks on the Academic Division of Labor Imagination.” In The Sociological Eye. Selected Papers, edited by HughesEverett C., 443–54. New Brunswick: Transaction Books.
50.
JacobsenMichael H.SmithGreg, eds. 2022. The Routledge International Handbook of Goffman Studies. London: Routledge.
51.
JacobsenMichael H.KristiansenSoren. 2014. The Social Thought of Erving Goffman. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
52.
JaworskiGary D.2000. “Erving Goffman: The Reluctant Apprentice.” Symbolic Interaction23: 299–308.
53.
JoasHansKnöblWolfgang. 2009. Social Theory: Twenty Introductory Lectures. Cambridge University Press.
54.
KatzAvron. 2001. “After High Holidays Erving Made up Excuses Rather than Admit that He Missed School Because He Was Jewish.” EGA.
55.
KornblumBill. 2009. “The Chicago School and the Roots of Urban Ethnography.” Ethnography10(4): 381–3.
56.
LangKurt. 2009. “Goffman Converted His Personal Neurosis or Inferiority Complex into a Very Productive and Creative Solution.” EGA.
57.
LidzVictor. 2009. “I found Goffman Talented, Original, Rewarding to Read, but Basically Problematic.” EGA.
58.
Leeds-HurwitzWendyWinkinYves. 2022. “Goffman and Communication.” In The Routledge International Handbook of Goffman Studies, edited by JacobsenMichael H.SmithGreg, 184–94. London: Routledge.
LoflandJohn. 2009. “Experiences With Erving Goffman.” EGA.
61.
MacCannellDean. 1983. “Erving Goffman (1922-1982).” Erving Goffman, edited by FineG. A.ManningP.SmithG. W. H., 8–37. London: Sage.
62.
MacMillanKelseyFeldmanSergey. 2022. “Announcing S2FOS, an Open Source Academic Field of Study Classifier.” AI2 Blog.
63.
ManningPhilip. 2016. “Goffman and Empirical Research Author(s).” Symbolic Interaction39 (1): 143–52.
64.
MarxGary T.1984. “Role Models and Role Distance. A Remembrance of Erving Goffman.” Erving Goffman, edited by FineG. A.ManningP.SmithG. W. H., 60–70. London: Sage.
65.
MenandLouis. 2009. “Some Frames for Goffman.” Social Psychology Quarterly72 (4): 296–99.
66.
MendlovitzSaul. 2009. “Erving Was a Jew Acting Like a Canadian Acting Like a Britisher.” EGA.
67.
MillerPeter. 2010. “The Zen of Erving Goffman.” EGA.
68.
MonaghanLee. 2022. “Goffman and Medical Sociology.” In The Routledge International Handbook of Goffman Studies, Michael H.JacobsenSmithGreg, 171–83. London: Routledge.
69.
PescosolidoBernice. 2015. “Erving Goffman: The Moral Career of a Stigma and Mental Illness.” In The Palgrave of Social Theory of Health, Illness, and Medicine, edited by CollyerFran, 273–86. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
70.
PiliavinJane Allyn. 2009. “Toward the End of the Party Erving Said to My Husband, ‘Why Are All These Smart People Doing Such Stupid Things?’” EGA.
71.
PochodaElizabeth. 2022. “In this Time Photograph, He Hoped to be Unrecognizable: ‘I Still Do Field Work. I Don’t Want to be Recognized Everywhere.’” EGA.
72.
PosnerJudith. 1978. “Erving Goffman: His Presentation of Self.”Philosophy of the Social Sciences8 (1): 67–8.
73.
RoomRobin. 2009. “Only Someone Who Had Trouble with Sociability Would Be So Keen an Observer.” EGA.
SchiffrinDeborah. 2009. “Erving Said That the Rigor and Formal Nature of Linguistics Could add Status to the Just-Beginning Study of Social Interaction.” EGA.
77.
ShalinDmitri. 2014a. “Interfacing Biography, Theory, and History: The Case of Erving Goffman.” Symbolic Interaction37 (1): 2–40.
78.
ShalinDmitri. 2014b. “Goffman on Mental Illness: Asylums and the ‘Insanity of Place’ Revisited.” Symbolic Interaction37 (1): 122–44.
79.
ShalinDmitri. 2016. “Erving Goffman, Fateful Action, and the Las Vegas Gambling Scene.” Special issue of UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal20 (2): 1–38.
80.
ShalinDmitri. 2021. “Goffman’s Biography and the Interaction Order.” Society58 (1): 33–43.
81.
SidnellJack. 2022. “‘Reframing ‘Footing.’” In The Routledge International Handbook of Goffman Studies, Michael H.JacobsenSmithGreg, 131–42. London: Routledge.
82.
SmelserNeil. 2009. “At the End of That First Year or So I Would Say That I Became as Close to Erving as Anyone Else in the Sociology Department.” EGA.
83.
SmithGregWinkinYves. 2013. “Working the Chicago Interstices: Warner and Goffman’s Intellectual Formation.” In The Chicago School Diaspora: Epistemology and Substance, edited by LowJacquelineBowdenGary, 126–49. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press.
84.
SmithGreg. 2021. “Fiction in Goffman.” The Sociological Review Monographs70 (4): 711–22.
85.
SusmanJoan. 1994. “Duality, Stigma, and Deviance.” Social Science & Medicine38 (1): 115–22.
86.
TurnerRoy. 2010. “What Struck Me First about Goffman Was That He Had an Amazing Elegance in His Delivery” EGA.
87.
VerhoevenJef C.1993 [1980]. “An Interview with Erving Goffman.” Research on Language and Social Interaction26 (3): 317–348.
88.
ViennePhilippe. 2010. “The Enigma of the Total Institution. Rethinking the Hughes-Goffman Intellectual Relationship.” Sociologica2: 1–30.
89.
WisemanEugene. 1965. “Review of Goffman’s Stigma.” American Journal of Sociology70 (5): 636.
90.
WisemanJacqueline. 2009. “Having a Genius for a Friend.” EGA.
91.
WinkinY. 1992/2000. “Baltasound as the Symbolic Capital of Social Interaction.” In Erving Goffman. Vol. 1, edited by FineG. A.ManningP.SmithG. W. H., 193–212. London: Sage.
92.
WinkinYves. 1999. “Erving Goffman: What is a Life? The Uneasy Making of Intellectual Biography.” In Goffman and Social Organization Studies in Sociological Legacy, edited by SmithG., 19–41. London: Routledge.
93.
WrongDennis. 2010. “Bobby Adamson Said, “Pooky Is a Genius, and as Soon as He Starts Writing His Own Stuff It Will Be Recognized.” EGA.
94.
YangKidukMehoLokman. 2007. “Citation Analysis: A Comparison of Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science.” Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology43 (1). doi: 10.1002/meet.14504301185
95.
ZerubavelEviatar. 2008. “Studying with Erving Goffman.” EGA.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
