In comparing and contrasting the presentation of the self through Erving Goffman’s The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life to Max Weber’s Bureaucracy and The Types of Legitimate Domination, they portray how one’s own self is shaped by society and to what extent people are free from society. As Weber tends to look at how hierarchies are impacted by the institutions of society and the leaders that are conditioned to fill those roles, Erving Goffman takes a unique perspective on the formation of society through the interaction of the individual’s “self” working together through a variety of interactions through everyday life as “performers.” While society and the self constantly interrelate with one another, there is also the debate that
…show more content…
Essentially, bureaucratization offers the possibility of “optimum possibility for carrying through the principle of specializing administrative functions according to purely objective considerations” meaning that there’s less regard for the people concerning the businesses bureaucratization dominates (Bureaucracy, 975.) Despite this originally designed democratic system, this continued form of dehumanization will eventually lead to a form of a “revolution” as the collective population responds to impersonal functions of the system that continuously results in the constant readjustment and reanalysis of the bureaucratic system. Meanwhile, Erving Goffman holds the stance that even though the self individuals present to society feel obligated to maintain a certain expression or presentation that would be considered appropriate in a variety of situations, as “the individual [is] required to rely on signs in order to construct a representation of his activity, the image he constructs... will be subject to all the disruptions that impressions are subject to” allowing a certain amount of freedom to individual’s behavior in part from society even though the perceptions of the individual being observed may feel “disrupted” or be subject to change. (The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life, 43.) Despite the fact the self may be limited in terms of freedom aside from the functions of society, this form of deviant behavior is not all-together foreign as our impression of reality can be easily disrupted through minor actions and
Essentially, bureaucratization offers the possibility of “optimum possibility for carrying through the principle of specializing administrative functions according to purely objective considerations” meaning that there’s less regard for the people concerning the businesses bureaucratization dominates (Bureaucracy, 975.) Despite this originally designed democratic system, this continued form of dehumanization will eventually lead to a form of a “revolution” as the collective population responds to impersonal functions of the system that continuously results in the constant readjustment and reanalysis of the bureaucratic system. Meanwhile, Erving Goffman holds the stance that even though the self individuals present to society feel obligated to maintain a certain expression or presentation that would be considered appropriate in a variety of situations, as “the individual [is] required to rely on signs in order to construct a representation of his activity, the image he constructs... will be subject to all the disruptions that impressions are subject to” allowing a certain amount of freedom to individual’s behavior in part from society even though the perceptions of the individual being observed may feel “disrupted” or be subject to change. (The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life, 43.) Despite the fact the self may be limited in terms of freedom aside from the functions of society, this form of deviant behavior is not all-together foreign as our impression of reality can be easily disrupted through minor actions and