Stefan Kühl, LMU

Sociology has to gain and to organize knowledge on very different forms of social order. Face-to-face interaction is one of these forms. It is a very old form of social order, much older than modern organizations and much older than pre-modern forms of written communication too. Already the most archaic societies we can imagine were able (and were in fact forced by the absence of any alternative mode of communication) to operate via face-to-face interactions. Seen as an object for sociological research the face-to-face interaction is a very new form nevertheless.

It was the sociologist Erving Goffman, who for the first time has shown that the minimal case of a social order following its own logic different from the mere psychology or even social psychology of the participants is not the family or the small group, talked about so much at the time of Goffmans first publications, but rather the temporary encounter between different persons, who are able to perceive the behaviour of each other (including the perception of this perception) and to interpret this behaviour as communication.

The course will start with a lecture of the central text from Erving Goffman. In a second step the differences between interaction in organizations and outside organizations will be discussed. In a third step typical situations of interaction will be analysed.

Required Reading
Goffmann, Erving (1959): The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. London: Penguin (this book should be bought be each student).

Requirements
Students will do six short papers (3 to 4 pages each) during the semester, a short oral presentation about a text and a final paper (10 to 15 pages).

Biography
Diplomsoziologie (Bielefeld), M.A. in History (Johns Hopkins), PhD (Bielefeld) with thesis on Scientific Racism and relationships among Eugenicists in the 20th century. Lecturer (wissenschaftlicher assistant) at the University of Munich, Institute of Sociology. Teaching and research interests in Sociology of Work, Sociology of Professions and Sociology of Organisations. Books published: The Nazi Connection. Eugenics, American Racism and German National Socialism. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press; 1994. (Japanese translation published in 1999); Wenn die Affen den Zoo regieren. Die Tücken der flachen Hierarchien, Frankfurt a.M.; New York: Campus; 5. Auflage; 1998 (first edition 1994). (Dutch translation published in 1997); Die Internationale der Rassisten. Der Aufstieg und Niedergang der internationalen Bewegung für Eugenik und Rassenhygiene im zwanzigsten Jahrhundert. Frankfurt a.M.; New York: Campus, 1997; (with Gerhard Kullmann) Gruppenarbeit. München: Hanser, 1999; Das Regenmacher-Phänomen. Widersprüche und Aberglauben im Konzept der lernenden Organisation. Frankfurt a.M.; New York: Campus, 2000.