Communicating and Organizing in Context

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GOFFMAN AND LARGER SOCIALINSTITUTIONS

Although Goffman's work focused primarily on the interaction order and its properties, he did comment on the connections between the interaction order and other social orders, such as institutions. Beyond its foundational role in Giddens’ structuration theory, we can directly connect Goffman's work to institutional contexts. There is much in his work to suggest that these linkages are possible, although Goffman himself did not develop these connections. McCannell suggested that Goffman tried to establish the interaction order as a social order in its own right, yet as he pointed out, “If there was ever a subject matter enmeshed in and determined by institutional arrangements … it is face-to-face interaction” ...