Erving Goffman

Abstract

The complex variety of sociological theories and methods is often reduced to a series of allegedly distinctive ‘schools’, ‘traditions’ ‘styles’ or ‘approaches’ that together constitute the discipline. Some such categories have been named after individual sociologists sufficiently recognisable through fame or notoriety (for example Marxism, Durkheimianism). A second convention has rested on the invention of new terms signifying the distinctiveness of a particular approach (for example symbolic interactionism, structural functionalism). A third has invoked a geographical or institutional affiliation shared by at least the first generation of those associated with its type of work (for example Chicago School, West Coast School).