Frame Analysis

Conceptual Overview and Discussion

Goffman, a Canadian sociologist, is well known for such classic works as The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959), Asylums (1961), Stigma (1963), Forms of Talk (1981), and “Felicity's Condition” (1983). It is argued that Goffman was one of the first to present thoughts on public spaces, the socially constructed self, the division between private self and public identity, and the role gender plays in society. With another major work, Frame Analysis (1974), Goffman presents a complex, highly detailed, and conceptualized analysis of frames that we use every day to make sense of what is happening around us. He vividly draws on huge amount of examples, varying from card games to theater to news clippings, to show what is it that we think is real, how we interpret what is happening, and under what frames.

Frame Analysis, together with Forms of Talk, marks Goffman's linguistic turn, due to which Goffman has gained wide interest outside sociology, as well. Varieties of frame analysis have been used, for example, in psychology, linguistics and discourse analysis, media and communication studies, and policy studies and political science. The attempts to neatly categorize frame analysis [Page 405]have proved to be unsuccessful. Does it fall under ethnomethodology? Is it more about semiotics or symbolic interactionism? What is the role of structuralism? Or should it be called interpretivism? Whatever the case, Goffman was above all intrigued by encounter-based analysis of everyday social life. Thus, it is not reasonable to try to apply Goffman's ideas to narratives and stories, or to other secondhand versions of events. Fine-grained studies in situ are the essence in Goffman's work. Perhaps that is one reason that frame analysis is rarely utilized in, for example, organizational research. It is argued that in the field of organization studies Goffman's ideas would prove to be fruitful for those engaged in empirical research of naturally occurring human interaction.

With frame analysis, Goffman offers a perspective on social reality, asking “What is it that's going on here?” and “Under what circumstances do we think things are real?” Shortly put, frames (often also referred to as cognitive structures or mental schemas) organize meanings, provide schemas to interpret events, and guide both individual and collective action. They act as rules for our communication and cognition. The way an activity is framed directs how we relate to it. Thus, frames are essential in order to understand the organization of experience. Intriguingly, although the employed frame is implicit and participants unaware of it, that does not prevent them from acting upon it. This specifically surfaces in encounters with authority, due to strong underlying legitimating frames that are more often than not taken for granted.

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