Microsociology: The social

construction of everyday
life
SOCL 109 Introduction to
Sociology
 Sociology
• Macrosociology: The study of the big
picture, i.e. society in general, its
components (e.g. groups and
organizations), social change

• Microsociology: The study of human

actions in social world in everyday life
 Studying everyday life
1. Reveals a lot about our routines,
ourselves as social beings and about
social life
2. Reveals how humans can actively and
creatively shape reality (i.e. social
construction of reality).
3. Reveals about the larger social
systems that depend on these everyday
interactions
“The social construction of reality”

• Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann

– Reality changes across time, space and
situation
– People creatively shape reality through social
interaction.
– Social interaction leads to negotiation and
modification of the reality.
What do you see in this picture?
 Micro-sociology
• Focuses on social construction of reality
by examining everyday interactions
• Non-verbal communication
• Verbal communication
Non-verbal communication
• Communicating by using body
movements, gestures and facial
expressions (e.g. Eye contact, hand
movements, gestures)

• It is an extension and an elaboration of

the verbal communication.
Many non-verbal cues’ meanings vary culturally:
e.g. hand gestures
 Non-verbal cues are also related with
specific social context: Staring

• Staring looking fixedly for prolonged time

• Is it intimate or hostile?
• “Hate stare”
 Some sees non-verbal cues as innate
• Paul Ekman, Facial Action Coding System
(FACS)
– The facial expression of 6 emotions
• Comparing people from different cultures
• Examining 6 deaf and blind children
– What is the use of it?
 FACS
– The claim that the movements of the facial
muscles may provide cues for detecting deception
• Yet, we need to pay attention to
- individual cases (e.g. unique biological traits)
- effects of culture (e.g. nodding)
- biological modifications (e.g. botox)
- the baseline to identify the inconsistencies
Emojis
Verbal Communications
 Goffman: everyday interactions

• The interaction order:

what we do in the
immediate presence of
others
• Social interaction can be
examined by borrowing
from theatrical
performance
(dramaturgical analysis)
 «Impression Management», Goffman
• Impression management: individuals try to
create specific impression in the eyes of others
– It is calculated
– It is in line with the social status of the
individual
• Status set
• Ascribed status
• Achieved status
• Master status (most central status)
– It is in line with the social roles (socially
defined expectations from a person in a given
status)
– It is related with human fragility and
vulnerability to embarrasment and humiliation/
– Lack of collaboration in social interaction
causes «saving the face»
«Audience Segregation» Goffman
• Although people try to cooperate with each
other for «saving the face» they also try to keep
their autonomy, dignity and respect. One way of
doing it is audience seggregation.
• Individuals have different social roles that may
result in multiple selves differentiated with
boundaries. Breaching those boundaries may
disturb them.
e.g. Two facebook pages, one official one for
friends
“Civil inattention,” Goffman
• In settings where each individual recognizes
each other’s presence but avoids a gesture
that might be taken as too intrusive.
– It conveys a message: there is no reason to
suspect the other person’s intentions, feel hostility
or avoid that person.
 «Focused versus Unfocused Interactions,»
Goffman

• Unfocused interaction:
Individuals exhibit awareness of
each others’ presence.

• Focused interaction: Individuals

directly attend to what others
say or do, such as direct
conversation.

– Encounter: A meeting between

two or more people on the
everyday level. Occurs against Online communities in facebook
the background of unfocused or twitter
interaction with people present
in the scene (e.g. ticket
attendants, waiters)
 «Expressions we give and those
we give off,» Goffman
• “The expressiveness of the individual appears
to involve two radically different kinds of sign
activity: the expression that he gives, and the
expression that he gives off" (Goffman: 2)
– Expressions one gives: verbal expressions
– Expressions one gives off: non-verbal expressions
 e.g. Idealization Goffman
• Goffman: we try to convince others that what we do
reflects ideal cultural standards rather than selfish motives.
e.g. Think about your facebook profile

“Negative idealization: individuals will systematically perform a role

that underplays his actual wealth or worth in order to achieve an
end”
e.g. We are all middle classes
e.g. Playing dumb to reinforce someone’s superiority
 «Performances» Goffman
• Performances are our presentations of
ourselves in everyday situations
– They consciously or unconsciously convey
information about ourselves
– They include dress (costume), objects carried
around (props), tone of voice, particular gestures
(manner)
– They change according to settings (stages)
 «Front stage» versus «Back stage»
performances
• Front stage: performances during interactions
in public settings
• Back stage: behavior when you are “at home,”
“like yourself”
• A blog?
• Your facebook page?
 Interaction in Time and Space
• All interactions are situated in a particular
time and space. The idea that social life is
zoned in time and space is called
«regionalisation».
– Space: front region vs back region
– Time: World time, 24-hours, shifts
Theories of Social Interaction
 Ethnomethodology
• Ethnomethodology: Harold Garfinkel
– Methods of ethnos, i.e. how people make sense of
what others do and particularly say
– Informal conversations with others
– We all use these methods without paying
particular attention.
Meaning emerges from context
A: I have a 14-year old son.
B: Well, that’s all right.
A: I also have a dog.
B: Oh, I’m sorry
 The words in these conversations do not
always have precise meanings
A: What did you do yesterday?

We fix their meanings depending on their

relevance: I went to the Saturday open market
 Garfinkel’s experiment
• Initiate a seemingly unimportant conversation
• Break down it deliberately to see people’s
reactions
A: How are you?
B: How am I in regard to what?

– People get upset since they involve in these

conversations for stability, predictability and they
indicate sharing unstated cultural assumptions.
 Conversation Analysis
• The method of recording and analyzing what
happens in everyday speech.
• It is not really interested in the content but
the forms and rules, as underlying features of
social interaction
– Sequencing
– Turn-taking
– Adjacency pairs
 “Interactional Vandalism”
• “Subordinate person breaks the tacit rules of
everyday interaction that are of value to more
powerful” (138)
– Disorients the passer-by: Victims unable to
understand what has happened
– Leads to mutual suspicion and incivility
 Trolling

Troll is a person who is anonymously

distrupt the taken for granted purposes
of an online space by deliberately
being provacative