Dd101 Tma4

In any community, in any part of the world, a form of social order is essential. It is the foundation by which people live and interact with one another. The Human capacity to imagine order is at the foundation of society itself, as argued by Charles Taylor (2004, p.58). Social order is how each person fits together, like pieces of a puzzle to create the greater picture, it is how they behave, interact and react to one another. There are several views about the ordering of social lives, however this essay will focus on those of Erving Goffman (1959, 1971 and 1972) and Michel Foucault (1972, 1977 and 1978).

Goffman through his studies, termed ‘interactional order’, claimed that social order is produced through the everyday actions and practices of people as they live their lives (DD101, online activity 23, 2009).   Goffman theorised that people performed roles in accordance to a situation, he used the metaphor of a theatre. On stage a person would perform their role in the acceptable and desired way, however offstage they become someone else or themselves. A good analogy of this which Goffman used was that of a restaurant, the waiter would behave in a desired way within the restaurant, be accepting of any criticism, be polite to the guests regardless of their own views, however in the kitchen behind the scenes shed the facade and act in a completely different manner. People play roles in everyday situations using trust and tact, their control on bodily gestures, facial expressions and language. Goffman concentrated his studies on social order, on trust and tact, it provides and sets the parameters of social interaction. Goffman assembled evidence in support of his theory by involving himself as a participant observer in different social interactions (DD101, online activity 23, 2009) he then used this material to analyse the roots of human interaction and social order. However he did not further any investigations with any analysis on the individuals or the social...