At present he is teaching sociology and doing research at the University of California at Berkeley. The report presented here was developed in connection with a study of interaction undertaken for the Department of Social Anthropology and the Social Sciences Research Committee of the University of Edinburgh and a study of social stratification supported by a Ford Foundation grant directed by Professor E. I want, too, to thank Elizabeth Bott, James Littlejohn, and Edward Ban- field, who helped me at the beginning of the study, and fellow students of occupations at the University of Chicago who helped me later.
IV DISCREPANT ROLES 141
INDEX 257
However, during the period in which the individual is in the immediate presence of the others, few events may occur which directly provide the others with the conclusive infor¬. The expressiveness of the individual (and therefore his capacity to give impressions) appears to involve two radi¬. Let us now turn from the others to the point of view of the individual who presents himself before them.
7 There is one aspect of the others’ response that bears
It should be added that since the others are likely to be relatively unsuspicious of the presumably un¬. Some of the assumptions upon which the responses of the participants had been predicated be¬. In consequence, when an individual projects a definition of the situation and thereby makes an implicit or explicit claim to be a person of a particu¬.
PERFORMANCES
The only definite information bearing on the question is the figures relating to the membership of the great London clubs. Another example can be found in the recent development of the medical profession where we find that it is increas¬. The model here is to be found with hilarious clarity in the cigar-store-bookie-joint, but something of the spirit of these establishments can be found in many places.
53 the performance; unforeseen contingencies may cause
I also took up the question of the music played by the band of the guard of honor at investitures and wrote to the Senior Bandmaster, Captain Rogan, on the subject. Perhaps this blindness is partly due to the fact that as performers we are often more conscious of the standards which we might have applied to our activity but have not than of the standards we unthinkingly apply. The greater our difficulties the 7 Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, trans.
Even if each woman dresses in conformity with her status, a game is still being played: artifice, like art,, be¬. longs to the realm of the imaginary. Scientific police work and projective testing are extreme examples of the application of this tendency.). However, there are many “white lies,”. told by doctors, potential guests, and others, presumably to save the feelings of the audience that is lied to, and these kinds of untruths are not thought to be horrendous.
In the same way manners, as Professor Ross remarks in his work on Social Control, are largely used by men of the world as a means of self¬. One night King Haakon told me of his difficulties in face of the republican leanings of the opposition and how careful in consequence he had to be in all he did and said. I would like, finally, to add that the matters which the audience leave alone because of their awe of the performer are likely to be the matters about which he would feel shame were a disclosure to occur.
First, let it be said that there are many individuals who sincerely believe that the definition of the situation they habitually project is the real reality.
73 pieces of perfonnances that will be required in the new
In thinking about a performance it is easy to assume that the content of the presentation is merely an expressive ex¬. This is a limited view and can obscure important differences in the function of the performance for the interaction as a whole. First, it often happens that the performance serves mainly to express the characteristics of the task that is per¬.
But most important of all, we commonly find that the definition of the situation projected by a particular partici¬. Thus if a household is to stage a formal dinner, someone in uniform or livery will be required as part of the working team. However in the case-study of particular social establishments, the co-operative activity of some of the participants seems too important to be handled merely as a variation on a previous theme.
In such cases the performer comes to be his own audience; he comes to be performer and 6 The use of the team (as opposed to the performer) as^the fundamental unit I take from Von Neumann, op. VV e may say that the starting point for all that is to come later consists of the individual performer maintaining a definition of the situa¬. It is apparent that individuals who are members of the same team will find themselves, by virtue of this fact, in an important relationship to one another.
Secondly, it is apparent that if members of a team must co-operate to maintain a given definition of the situation before their audience, they will hardly be in a position to.
83 maintain that particular impression before one another. Ac¬
Thus, while all the members of one’s clique may be of the same status level, it may be crucial that not all persons of one’s status level be allowed into the clique.8. And his choice of position may be nicely adjusted to his own par¬. When we turn from a one-man team to a larger one, the character of the reality that is espoused by the team changes. Instead of a rich definition of the situation, reality may become reduced to a thin party line, for one may expect the fine to be unequally congenial to the members of the team.
It seems to be generally felt that public disagreement among the members of the team not only incapacitates them for united action but also embarrasses the reality sponsored by the team. It may be suggested that literal false notes are avoided for quite the same reasons that figurative false notes are avoided; in both cases it is a matter of sustaining a definition of the situation. In other words, in staging a definition of the situation, it may be necessary for the several members of the team to be unanimous in the posi¬. tions they take and secretive about the fact that these positions were not independently arrived at.
When a member of the team makes a mistake in the presence of the audience, the other team members often must suppress their imme¬. For example, in a recent study of the teaching profession, it was found that teachers felt that if they are to sustain an impression of professional compe¬. For example, in a recent study of the police we learn that a patrolling team of two policemen, who witness each other’s illegal and semi¬.
Becker, “The Teacher in the Authority System of the Public School,” Journal of Educational Sociology, XXVII, p.
93 convenient to call the team which controls the setting the
In general, the members of the team will differ in the ways and the degree to which they are allowed to direct the performance. The role of the baseball umpire in sustaining a particular kind of reality for the fans may be taken as an illustration. Further, if the audience appreciates that the performance has a director, they are likely to hold him more responsible than other performers for the success of the performance.
For example, both the president and the research director of a national union may spend time in the main office of the union head¬. But the chief value of the footman lay in one of these [domestic] services directly. Livery servants, from the coachman down to the footboy, were among the most effective of the lot.
A team, then, may be defined as a set of individuals whose intimate co-operation is required if a given projected definition of the situation is to be maintained. It will be useful to sug¬. gest some of the details of this culture here. In the scullery wing of the kitchen region, mold would sometimes form on soup yet to be used.
These arts were to be learned in the places which served as the habitual rendezvous of the very dregs of society, and which were generally known as the Couts des Miracles. In their ordinary relationships with women workers most of the men were courteous and even gallant. It has been suggested that an intrusion may be handled by having those present switch to a definition of the situa¬.
DISCREPANT ROLES
Performers are aware of the impression they foster and ordinarily also possess destructive information about the show. In the main, they know the definition of the situation that the performance fosters but do not have destructive information about it. A shill, then, is someone who appears to be just another unsophisticated member of the audience and who uses his unapparent sophistication in the interests of the performing team.
When a go-between operates in the actual presence of the two teams of which he is a member, we obtain a won¬. This person is expected to be present in the front region while the host is presenting a performance of hospitality to the guests of the establishment. It is filled by individuals who specialize in the construction, repair, and maintenance of the show their clients maintain before other people.
Renegades often take a moral stand, saying that it is better to be true to the ideals of the role than to the per¬. But of course, in such cases, the several members of the audience are not in immediate face- to-face contact with one another. Of the many types of communication in which the performer engages and which convey informa¬.
In the presence of the audience, the performers tend to use a favorable form of address to them. In the absence of the audience, the audience tends to be referred to by bare surname, first name where this is not permissible to their faces, nickname, or slighting pronunciation of full name. Perhaps one of the notes in the pianoforte harmony is the very note that the singer should be singing, and so he makes ifiis note predominate.
