Chapter Eight - Playing For Meaning: Erving Goffman On Stakes, Pools, and Competitive Constructions of Meaning

Summary

Introduction

Erving Goffman’s analyses operate in a constant “what if”-mode. They filter the world through different metaphors, big and small, to show the reader what new insights could be gained if we shifted the understanding of phenomena away from their usual, everyday, expected framing. This is, perhaps, a description of all of sociology (Berger 1971), but Goffman’s metaphorical reorderings take on a special playfulness. They transcend the purely analytical, structured style of much of sociology and opt for an aesthetics of mischievous narration instead. In good narrative fashion, the style is show, don’t tell: Goffman takes us into vignettes, stories, without outlining a strict analytical structure. The metaphorical reordering lies in the retelling, in the story itself, and in a myriad of terms introduced in often unstable ways, to be found by readers. Its analyses are buried deep in what appear, on the surface, to be engaging stories, sprinkled with terms Goffman uses in often unsystematic ways (Manning 1980, 258).

Goffman’s metaphors are usually practical and contextual, not explicated. Three metaphors make prominent, practical appearances in Goffman’s work: the theater, the ritual, and language. Like all of sociology’s reorientation of perspective, these metaphors are ever so slightly unsettling, going against the grain of the quotidian life they analyze. They utilize common juxtapositions: In everyday framing, life is supposed to be looked at as real, not as theater; as mundane, not religious. Out of this phase-shifting reimagination through slightly unsettling metaphors, the “shudder of recognition” (Scheff 2005) arises.

In this chapter, I want to draw attention to a fourth metaphor: the game. In Goffmanian fashion, I want to start with scenes from everyday life to then go through the three main elements that assemble the game metaphor in Goffman’s texts: Strategic Interaction (1969) breaks the world down to moves, plays, and games. The extended essay “Where the Action Is” (from Interaction Ritual, 1967) highlights the fragility of the social order, and the way games serve to create dangers and opportunities for meaning. The essay “Fun in Games” (from Encounters, 1961) focuses on how meanings are highlighted in games, and how facades serve to present the illusion of stability.