193
School teachers perform one of the
most “legitimate,” highly respected
roles in society—Goffman refers to
the public roles people enact as their
“virtual social identity.”
prescribed norms that govern
interpersonal conduct. When an
individual deviates from these
social norms they are stigmatized
and marginalized from the wider
group or social community to
which they belong.
Virtual and actual identity
In his landmark study Stigma,
Goffman analyzes the behavior
of individuals whose identity
is believed to be “soiled” or
“defective” in some way. He
distinguishes between what he
refers to as “virtual” and “actual”
social identity.
Virtual social identity is the
socially legitimate version of
selfhood that individuals are
expected to present in public—for
example, the socially defined traits
and behaviors associated with
being a medical doctor. Actual
social identity is the self-identity
individuals imagine themselves to
possess in private—the traits and
behaviors the doctor enacts in his
or her private life, for example. For
Goffman, stigma arises whenever
the disparity between virtual and
actual social identity becomes
untenable—when, for instance, the
respected medic is known to drink
and smoke excessively outside of
work; feelings of embarrassment
or shame then ensue, and social
interaction breaks down. Stigma
results from the fact that members
of society share common
expectations and attitudes about
what to expect from people in
certain social situations, and how
those people should behave or look.The concept of stigma
Goffman identifies three important
features of the concept of stigma.
First, stigma is not inherent to
a given individual, attribute, or
way of behaving, although some
behaviors, such as pedophilia, are
universally condemned. The
context in which an attribute or
behavior is displayed strongly
determines how others respond. ❯❯See also: Pierre Bourdieu 76–79 ■ Georg Simmel 104–05 ■ G.H. Mead 176–77 ■
Howard S. Becker 280–85 ■ Alfred Schütz 335
CULTURE AND IDENTITY
Erving Goffman
Erving Goffman was born
in Canada in 1922 to a family
of immigrant Ukrainian Jews.
After graduating from the
University of Toronto in 1945
with a BA in anthropology
and sociology, he moved to
the University of Chicago,
where he attained his MA
and PhD For his doctoral
dissertation, he undertook
fieldwork on a remote island
in Scotland. The data he
collected there formed the
basis for his most celebrated
work, The Presentation of
Self in Everyday Life. He was
appointed to the University
of Pennsylvania in 1968 and
in 1981 was the 73rd President
of the American Sociological
Association. Goffman died in
1982 of stomach cancer.Key works1959 The Presentation of Self
in Everyday Life
1961 Asylums: Essays on the
Social Situation of Mental
Patients and Other Inmates
1963 Stigma: Notes on the
Management of Spoiled
IdentityStigma constitutes
a special discrepancy
between virtual and
actual social identity.
Erving Goffman