Although standing, broadly, in the symbolic interactionist tradition, and concentrating his attention on face-to-face phenomena, Goffmans interests lay in displaying how even our most minute and apparently insignificant activities are socially structured and surrounded by RITUAL. In his later work, with its focus on the 'S yntax’ of framing, Goffman moved closer to the analytical concerns of ETHNOMETHODOLOGY and CONVERSATION ANALYSIS.
His methods of research included PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION and close analysis of various kinds of naturally occurring social documents and happenings (e.g. advertising images, radio talk). The establishment of the validity of his conceptual schemes would appear to depend, mainly, on his ability to provide persuasive demonstration of their analytical power (a mixture of FORMAL SOCIOLOGY and ANALYTIC INDUCTION).A major element in Goffman's success was his flair as a social observer, which is not easily emulated.
Critics of Goffmans sociology have commented on its author's ‘demonic detachment’, that it is peopled by actors who ‘lack individual qualities’, and that it presents society as a ‘big con’. Nevertheless, even if Goffman's approach may not present people in the round, his sociology possesses great strengths, not least in its steady production of many SENSITIZING CONCEPTS taken up, to good effect, by other sociologists. See also CAREER, ROLE DISTANCE, STIGMA, ENCOUNTER, FRAME, INTERACTION, INTERACTION RITUAL AND INTERACTION ORDER, STRATEGIC INTERACTION, TOTAL INSTITUTION OR TOTAL ORGANIZATION.