Part of the SAGE Social Thinker series, this book serves as a concise and inviting introduction to the life and works of Erving Goffman, one of the most prominent social theorists in postwar sociology. Goffmans ideas continue to influence scholars in various fields and have also attracted many readers outside conventional academia. Goffmans overall research agenda was the exploration of what he termed the interaction orderthat is, the micro social order that regulates the co-mingling of people in each others immediate presence. He coined several new concepts (face-work, impression management, role distance, civil inattention, etc.) with which to grasp and understand the complexities and basic social restructuring of everyday life, many of which are now part of sociologys standard vocabulary.