Thomas, Gareth M.  ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4959-2337
2025.
Re(dis)covering Goffman: Disability, ‘deference’ and ‘demeanour’ in a community café.
The Sociological Review
10.1177/00380261251316054
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Abstract
Erving Goffman’s scholarship has been subject to intense critique in disability studies. Goffman’s account of ‘stigma’, in particular, is viewed as being antithetical to its driving principles, namely: to depart from deficit configurations of disability; to define disability as embedded in rigid and oppressive social structures; and to recognise more positive accounts of disability. In this article, I discuss the value of Goffman’s work for understanding the social worlds of disabled people. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork at a community café run by learning-disabled adults and non-disabled adults, I use Goffman’s neglected concepts of ‘deference’ and ‘demeanour’ to explore how learning-disabled adults are afforded respect, or not, in this space. I sketch out how mundane encounters – taking orders, making drinks, serving customers – are carefully accomplished in ways that accord deference to café team members and reassert their humanity and value. At the same time, I capture how customers, on occasion, do not act with deference, nor display ‘good’ demeanour. In such moments, their conduct – whereby team members are ignored, disregarded or framed as charitable subjects – animates deficit scripts of disability. To conclude, I argue that Goffman’s insights provide the machinery for demonstrating how learning-disabled adults’ interactions with (non-disabled) others must be central to an analysis of their lives.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Date Type: | Published Online |
| Status: | In Press |
| Schools: | Schools > Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education) |
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HM Sociology |
| Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
| ISSN: | 2754-1371 |
| Funders: | British Academy |
| Date of First Compliant Deposit: | 8 January 2025 |
| Date of Acceptance: | 8 January 2025 |
| Last Modified: | 18 Feb 2025 10:15 |
| URI: | https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/175091 |
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