Relations in Public: Microstudies of the Public Order - Erving Goffman

In this collection of studies, sociologist Erving Goffman examines the unwritten rules that govern behaviour in public spaces. Through close observation of everyday encounters, he explores how strangers manage contact, maintain personal space, negotiate social boundaries and respond to one another in shared environments. Goffman investigates the small gestures, conventions and interaction rituals that allow public life to function, revealing the complex social order beneath seemingly ordinary situations. A key work in his influential study of face-to-face interaction and everyday social behaviour.