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© 2026 Fame.am

Erving Goffman

Canadian-American sociologist (1922–1982)

  • Fame55.9
  • Momentum0.0
  • Canada rank#237
Source-basedStable
  • Fame55.9
  • Momentum0.0
  • Canada rank#237
  • Academics rank#246
  • Wikipedia17.7K
Lived 1922–1982, aged 60Canada
Canada flagCanadaAcademicsAcademic
  • Wikipedia
    52 languages
    Cross-language footprint
  • Rank in Canada
    #237
    Academics
  • Era
    1922–1982
    Aged 60
  • Awards
    1
    recognised work
Network

In their orbit

People connected to Erving Goffman

GS
SpouseGillian Sankoff
AS
SpouseAngelica Schuyler Choate
Alice Goffman
ChildAlice Goffman
Frances Bay
SiblingFrances Bay
Summary
Updated 2026-06-21

He argued that all of us are actors managing impressions, that asylums strip identity, that stigma is social machinery. His dramaturgical lens — everyday life as performance — reshaped how sociology reads human behavior.

Key facts
Profile type
Academic
Category
Academics
Country
Canada
Country rank
#237
Category rank
#246
Last updated
2026-06-21
Biography

About

Erving Goffman was born in Canada in 1922 and became an American sociologist whose work on symbolic interaction redefined the field. In 1956 he published The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, introducing dramaturgical analysis: the idea that social life is theater, each of us constantly performing and managing how others see us. Over the next twenty-five years he extended that vision into asylums, stigma, interaction rituals, and the frames through which experience gets organized — always dissecting the subtle mechanics of selfhood and social control. He served as the 73rd president of th…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Erving Goffman

Erving Goffman
said · 1976
For over a decade now in the literature of social psychology there has been good work on stigma - the situation of the individual who is disqualified from full social acceptance.
— Preface, lead paragraph. p.9 [Page numbers per the Penguin Books Pelican paperback, 1976 reprint.]
Erving Goffman
said · 1973
In our society, defecation involves an individual in activity which is defined as inconsistent with the cleanliness and purity standards expressed in many of our performances.
— p. 121 (1973 edition)
Erving Goffman
said · 1967
Approved attributes and their relation to face make every man his own jailer; this is a fundamental social constraint even though each man may like his cell.
— Erving Goffman (1967: 10), as cited in: Trevino (2003,, p. 37).
Erving Goffman
said · 1963
But, When persons are present to one another they can function not merely as physical instruments but also as communicative ones.
— Behavior in Public Places, 1963
Erving Goffman
said · 1963
In this essay I want to review some work on stigma, especially some popular work, to see what it can yield for sociology.
— Preface - p.9-10
via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA
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Tags & topics

#Academics#Academic#Canada#Americas#20th Century
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By the numbers

Score breakdown

The six component signals behind the Fame score, and their ranks across the leaderboards.

Fame
Stable
55.9
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
Score components
Historical24.6
Source confidence60.0
Completeness70.0
Global rank
—
Country rank
→
#237
Category rank
→
#246
Receipts

Sources

  • Wikidata
    wikidata · wikidata.org
    High confidence
  • Wikipedia
    wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
    High confidence
  • Pantheon 2.0
    database · pantheon.world
    High confidence
Identity

Quick facts

Country
Canada
Category
Academics
Profile type
Academic
Status
deceased
Born
June 11, 1922
Died
November 19, 1982
Wikipedia
View article
Last updated
26d ago
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