Skip to content
Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter Mouton October 20, 2020

Sacred civility? An alternative conceptual architecture informed by cultural sociology

  • Mervyn Horgan

    Mervyn Horgan is associate professor in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology, University of Guelph and faculty fellow at the Yale University Centre for Cultural Sociology. He has a long-standing research interest in the genesis and course of solidarity between strangers in everyday urban life, with special attention to the meanings that attach to both uncivil and convivial encounters. His recent research appears in Pragmatics, Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, and Social Inclusion.

    EMAIL logo

Abstract

The roots of (im)politeness research in Durkheim’s sociology are neglected. Goffman is the go-to sociologist in (im)politeness research, and Goffman’s debt to Durkheim is substantial. This article argues that a renewed and broadened field of inquiry opens up around (im)politeness phenomena when we take seriously the centrality of Durkheim’s conception of the sacred to both the practice of everyday life and the analysis of everyday phenomena. To embed the sociology of the sacred into the analysis of (im)politeness phenomena, I develop an alternative conceptual architecture that both encompasses and expands the field. This involves two conceptual shifts that I draw out of contemporary Durkheimian cultural sociology. The first shift, from (im)politeness to (in)civility, brings a wider range of phenomena into our analytic purview, and the second, from face to ritual, displaces face as the central concept in (im)politeness research. The value of these conceptual shifts is illustrated using the example of an account of a racist encounter in public space. Consequences of these conceptual shifts for deeper and wider interdisciplinary exploration are explored.

About the author

Mervyn Horgan

Mervyn Horgan is associate professor in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology, University of Guelph and faculty fellow at the Yale University Centre for Cultural Sociology. He has a long-standing research interest in the genesis and course of solidarity between strangers in everyday urban life, with special attention to the meanings that attach to both uncivil and convivial encounters. His recent research appears in Pragmatics, Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, and Social Inclusion.

References

Alexander, Jeffrey C. 2000. Theorizing the good society: Hermeneutic, normative and empirical discourses. Canadian Journal of Sociology / Cahiers canadiens de sociologie. 25(3). 271-309.10.2307/3341644Search in Google Scholar

Alexander, Jeffrey C. 2004. Cultural pragmatics: Social performance between ritual and strategy. Sociological Theory. 22(4). 527-573.10.1017/CBO9780511616839.002Search in Google Scholar

Alexander, Jeffrey C. 2006. The civil sphere. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195162509.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Alexander, Jeffrey C. & Philip Smith. 2001. The strong program in cultural sociology. In: Jonathan Turner (ed.) The Handbook of Sociological Theory. 135-150. New York: Kluwer.10.4324/9781315267784-2Search in Google Scholar

Alexander, Jeffrey C. & Philip Smith (eds.). 2005. The Cambridge companion to Durkheim. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CCOL9780521806725Search in Google Scholar

Ariel, Mira. 2010. Defining pragmatics. New York: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511777912Search in Google Scholar

Arundale, Robert B. 2006. Face as relational and interactional: A communication framework for research on face, facework, and politeness. Journal of Politeness Research. Language, Behaviour, Culture. 2(2). 193-21610.1515/PR.2006.011Search in Google Scholar

Bargiela-Chiappini, Francesca. 2003. Face and politeness: new (insights) for old (concepts). Journal of Pragmatics. 35(10-11). 1453-1469.10.1016/S0378-2166(02)00173-XSearch in Google Scholar

Bargiela-Chiappini, Francesca & Sandra Harris. 2006. Politeness at work: Issues and challenges. Journal of Politeness Research. Language, Behaviour, Culture. 2(1). 7-33.10.1515/PR.2006.002Search in Google Scholar

Bellah, Robert. 2005. Durkheim and ritual. In: Jeffrey C. Alexander & Philip Smith (eds.). The Cambridge companion to Durkheim. 183-210. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CCOL9780521806725.008Search in Google Scholar

Berger, Peter L. & Thomas Luckmann. 1990. The social construction of reality. New York: Anchor Books.10.2307/j.ctv1f886rp.22Search in Google Scholar

Bjerre, Jørn. 2015. A new foundation for the social sciences? Searle’s misreading of Durkheim. Philosophy of the Social Sciences. 45(1). 53-82.10.1177/0048393114525860Search in Google Scholar

Blumer, Herbert. 1954. What is wrong with social theory? American Sociological Review. 19(1). 3-10.10.4324/9781315129945-8Search in Google Scholar

Bousfield, Derek. 2010. Researching impoliteness and rudeness: Issues and definitions. In Sage L. Graham & Miriam A. Locher (eds.). Interpersonal Pragmatics. 101-134. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.10.1515/9783110214338.1.101Search in Google Scholar

Bousfield, Derek. 2013. Face in conflict. Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict 1(1). 37-57.10.1075/jlac.1.1.03bouSearch in Google Scholar

Bousfield, Derek & Jonathan Culpeper. 2008. Impoliteness: Eclecticism and Diaspora. Journal of Politeness Research. Language, Behaviour, Culture 4(2). 161-168.Search in Google Scholar

Bousfield, Derek & Karen Grainger. 2010. Introduction. politeness research: Retrospect and prospect. Journal of Politeness Research. Language, Behaviour, Culture. 6(2). 161-182.10.1515/jplr.2010.009Search in Google Scholar

Brown, Penelope & Stephen C. Levinson. 1987. Politeness: some universals in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511813085Search in Google Scholar

Burke, Kenneth. 1989. Vocabularies of motive. In: Joseph Gusfield (ed.) On Symbols & Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 158-176.Search in Google Scholar

Collins, Patricia Hill. 2000. Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. New York: Routledge.10.4324/9781315831824Search in Google Scholar

Collins, Randall. 2005. Interaction ritual chains. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.10.1515/9781400851744Search in Google Scholar

Culpeper, Jonathan. 1996. Towards an anatomy of impoliteness. Journal of Pragmatics 25(3). 349-367.10.1016/0378-2166(95)00014-3Search in Google Scholar

Culpeper, Jonathan. 2010. Conventionalised impoliteness formulae. Journal of Pragmatics. 42(12). 3232-3245. doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2010.05.007.10.1016/j.pragma.2010.05.007Search in Google Scholar

Douglas, Mary. 2005. Purity and danger: An analysis of concepts of pollution and taboo. London: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar

Durkheim, Émile. 1960. Essays on sociology and philosophy. Kurt H. Wolff (ed.). New York: Harper Torchbooks.Search in Google Scholar

Durkheim, Émile. 1974. Sociology and Philosophy. Translated by: David Pocock. New York: Free Press.Search in Google Scholar

Durkheim, Émile. 1995. The elementary forms of religious life. Translated by: Karen E. Fields. New York: Free Press.Search in Google Scholar

Elias, Norbert. 1994. The civilizing process. Translated by: Edmund Jephcott. Oxford: Blackwell.Search in Google Scholar

Enfield, Nick J. 2009. Relationship thinking and human pragmatics. Journal of Pragmatics. 41(1). 60-78. doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2008.09.007.10.1016/j.pragma.2008.09.007Search in Google Scholar

Enfield, Nick J. 2013. Elements of Formulation. In Jürgen Streeck, Charles Goodwin & Curtis LeBaron (eds.), Embodied interaction: language and body in the material world, 59-66. New York: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Garcés-Conejos Blitvich, Pilar. 2013. Introduction: Face, identity and im/politeness. looking backward, moving forward: From Goffman to practice theory. Journal of Politeness Research. 9(1):1-33.10.1515/pr-2013-0001Search in Google Scholar

Geertz, Clifford. 1973. The Interpretation of cultures. New York: Basic Books.Search in Google Scholar

Goffman, Erving. 1955. On face-work; an analysis of ritual elements in social interaction. Psychiatry. 18(3). 213-231.10.1162/15241730360580159Search in Google Scholar

Goffman, Erving. 1959. The presentation of self in everyday life. New York: Anchor Books.Search in Google Scholar

Goffman, Erving. 1963a. Behavior in public places: Notes on the social organization of gatherings. New York: Free Press.Search in Google Scholar

Goffman, Erving. 1963b. Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity. New York: Free Press.Search in Google Scholar

Goffman, Erving. 1964. The neglected situation. American anthropologist. 66(6). 133-136.10.1016/B978-0-08-023719-0.50040-1Search in Google Scholar

Goffman, Erving. 1967. Interaction ritual: Essays on face-to-face behavior. New York: Anchor Books.10.4324/9780203788387Search in Google Scholar

Goffman, Erving. 1983a. The interaction order. American Sociological Review. 48(1). 1-17.10.2307/2095141Search in Google Scholar

Goffman, Erving. 1983b. Felicity’s Condition. American Journal of Sociology, 89(1). 1-53.Search in Google Scholar

Goodwin, Charles. 2000. Action and embodiment within situated human interaction. Journal of Pragmatics. 32(10). 1489-1522. doi:10.1016/S0378-2166(99)00096-X.10.1016/S0378-2166(99)00096-XSearch in Google Scholar

Grice, Paul. 1989. Studies in the way of words. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Gumperz, John J. 1982. Discourse strategies. New York: Cambridge University Press10.1017/CBO9780511611834Search in Google Scholar

Holtgraves, Thomas. 2005. Social psychology, cognitive psychology, and linguistic politeness. Journal of Politeness Research. Language, Behaviour, Culture. 1(1). 73-93.10.1515/jplr.2005.1.1.73Search in Google Scholar

Horgan, Mervyn. 2014. Durkheim, development and the devil: A cultural sociology of community conflict. Canadian Journal of Sociology / Cahiers canadiens de sociologie. 39(4). 741-763. doi:10.29173/cjs19024.10.29173/cjs19024Search in Google Scholar

Horgan, Mervyn. 2017. Mundane mutualities: Solidarity and strangership in everyday urban life. In: Stijn Oosterlynck, Nick Schuermans, & Maarten Loopmans (eds.). Place, diversity and solidarity. 19-32. London: Routledge.10.4324/9781315622866-2Search in Google Scholar

Horgan, Mervyn. 2019. Everyday incivility and the urban interaction order: Theorizing moral affordances in ritualized interaction. Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict. 7(1). 32-55. doi:10.1075/jlac.00018.hor.10.1075/jlac.00018.horSearch in Google Scholar

Horgan, Mervyn. 2020. Urban interaction ritual: strangership, civil inattention and everyday incivilities in public space. Pragmatics. 30(1). 116-141. doi: 10.1075/prag.19022.hor10.1075/prag.19022.horSearch in Google Scholar

Hymes, Dell. 1964. Toward ethnographies of communication. American Anthropologist. 66(6). 1-34.10.1525/aa.1964.66.suppl_3.02a00010Search in Google Scholar

Jacobsen, Michael Hviid & Søren. Kristiansen. 2009. Micro-recognition: Erving Goffman as recognition thinker. Sosiologisk Årbok. 14(3-4). 47-76.Search in Google Scholar

Kádár, Dániel Z. 2013. Relational rituals and communication: ritual interaction in groups. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1057/9780230393059Search in Google Scholar

Kádár, Dániel Z. 2017. Politeness, impoliteness and ritual: maintaining the moral order in interpersonal interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/9781107280465Search in Google Scholar

Kádár, Dániel Z., Vahid Parvaresh & Puyu Ning. 2019. Morality, moral order, and language conflict and aggression. Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict. 7(1). 6-31.10.1075/jlac.00017.kadSearch in Google Scholar

Kádár, Dániel Z. & Andrea Szalai. 2020. The socialisation of interactional rituals: A case study of ritual cursing as a form of teasing in Romani. Pragmatics. 30(1). 15-39. doi:10.1075/prag.19017.kad. https://benjamins.com/catalog/prag.19017.kad10.1075/prag.19017.kadSearch in Google Scholar

Kienpointner, Manfred. 1997. Varieties of rudeness: Types and functions of impolite utterances. Functions of Language 4(2). 251-287. https://doi.org/10.1075/fol.4.2.05kie.10.1075/fol.4.2.05kieSearch in Google Scholar

Kendrick, Kobin H. & Paul Drew. 2016. Recruitment: Offers, requests, and the organization of assistance in interaction. Research on Language and Social Interaction. 49(1). 1-19. doi:10.1080/08351813.2016.1126436.10.1080/08351813.2016.1126436Search in Google Scholar

Leech, Geoffrey. 2007. Politeness: Is there an east-west divide? Journal of Politeness Research. Language, Behaviour, Culture. 3(2). 167-206.10.1515/PR.2007.009Search in Google Scholar

Limberg, Holger. 2009. Impoliteness and threat responses. Journal of Pragmatics. 41(7). 1376-1394. doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2009.02.003.10.1016/j.pragma.2009.02.003Search in Google Scholar

Locher, Miriam A. & Richard J. Watts. 2005. Politeness theory and relational work. Journal of Politeness Research. Language, Behaviour, Culture. 1(1). 9-33.10.1515/jplr.2005.1.1.9Search in Google Scholar

Lukes, Steven. 2007. Searle versus Durkheim. In Savas L. Tsohatzidis (ed.). Intentional acts and institutional facts: Essays on John Searle’s social ontology. vol. 41. 191-201. New York: Springer.10.1007/978-1-4020-6104-2_9Search in Google Scholar

Mallory, Peter & Patricia Cormack. 2018. The two Durkheims: Founders and classics in Canadian introductory sociology textbooks. Canadian Journal of Sociology / Cahiers canadiens de sociologie. 43(1). 1-24.10.29173/cjs29386Search in Google Scholar

Mey, Jacob L. 2017. The sociological foundations of pragmatics. In Yan Huang (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Pragmatics. 132-151. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Mills, C. W. (1940). Situated actions and vocabularies of motive. American Sociological Review. 5(6). 904-913. https://doi.org/10.2307/208452410.2307/2084524Search in Google Scholar

O’Driscoll, Jim. 1996. About face: A defence and elaboration of universal dualism. Journal of Pragmatics 25(1). 1-32. https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-2166(94)00069-X.10.1016/0378-2166(94)00069-XSearch in Google Scholar

Parvaresh, Vahid. 2019. Moral impoliteness. Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict. 7(1). 79-104. doi:10.1075/jlac.00020.par.10.1075/jlac.00020.parSearch in Google Scholar

Phillips, Tim & Philip Smith. 2003. Everyday incivility: towards a benchmark. The Sociological Review. 51(1). 85-108. doi:10.1111/1467-954X.00409.10.1111/1467-954X.00409Search in Google Scholar

Rawls, Anne Warfield. 2010. Social order as moral order. In Steven Hitlin and Stephen Vaisey (eds.). Handbook of the Sociology of Morality. 95-121. New York: Springer.10.1007/978-1-4419-6896-8_6Search in Google Scholar

Rawls, Anne Warfield. 2012. Durkheim’s theory of modernity: Self-regulating practices as constitutive orders of social and moral facts. Journal of Classical Sociology. 12(3-4). 479-512. doi:10.1177/1468795X12454476.10.1177/1468795X12454476Search in Google Scholar

Reed, Isaac Ariail. 2010. Epistemology contextualized: Social-scientific knowledge in a postpositivist era. Sociological Theory. 28(1). 20-39.10.1111/j.1467-9558.2009.01365.xSearch in Google Scholar

Reed, Isaac Ariail. 2011. Interpretation and social knowledge: On the use of theory in the human sciences. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226706726.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Riley, Alexander. 2012. Impure play: Sacredness, transgression, and the tragic in popular culture. Lexington: Lexington Books.Search in Google Scholar

Sacks, Harvey. 1995. Lectures on conversation. Oxford: Blackwell.10.1002/9781444328301Search in Google Scholar

Schegloff, Emanuel A. 1992. Repair after next turn: The last structurally provided defense of intersubjectivity in conversation. American Journal of Sociology. 97(5). 1295-1345.10.1086/229903Search in Google Scholar

Schutz, Alfred. 1967. The phenomenology of the social world. Chicago: Northwestern University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Schutz, Alfred. 1975. On phenomenology and social relations: selected writings. Edited by: Helmut R. Wagner. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Search in Google Scholar

Searle, John. 1969. Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781139173438Search in Google Scholar

Sifianou, Maria. 2019. Im/politeness and in/civility: A neglected relationship? Journal of Pragmatics. 147. 49-64.10.1016/j.pragma.2019.05.008Search in Google Scholar

Smith, Dorothy E. 1987. The everyday world as problematic: a feminist sociology. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Search in Google Scholar

Smith, Philip & Ryan D. King. 2013. From road rage to everyday automotive incivility: A routine activities approach to low-level deviance. The Sociological Quarterly. 54(3). 476-500.10.1111/tsq.12030Search in Google Scholar

Smith, Philip, Timothy L. Phillips & Ryan D. King. 2010. Incivility: the rude stranger in everyday life. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511781803Search in Google Scholar

Smith, Robin. 2017. Membership categorisation, category-relevant spaces, and perception-in-action: The case of disputes between cyclists and drivers. Journal of Pragmatics. 118. 120-133. doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2017.05.007.10.1016/j.pragma.2017.05.007Search in Google Scholar

Stivers, Tanya, Nick J. Enfield, Penelope Brown, Christina Englert, Makoto Hayashi, Trine Heinemann, Gertie Hoymann, Federico Rossano, Jan Peter de Ruiter, Kyung-Eun Yoon, and Stephen C. Levinson. 2009. Universals and cultural variation in turn-taking in conversation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 106(26). 10587-10592.10.1073/pnas.0903616106Search in Google Scholar

Terkourafi, Marina. 1999. Frames for politeness: A case study. Pragmatics 9(1). 97-117. https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.9.1.10ter.10.1075/prag.9.1.10terSearch in Google Scholar

Terkourafi, Marina. 2005. Beyond the micro-level in politeness research. Journal of Politeness Research. Language, Behaviour, Culture. 1(2). 237-262.10.1515/jplr.2005.1.2.237Search in Google Scholar

Terkourafi, Marina. 2012. Politeness and pragmatics. In Keith Allan & Katarzyna Jaszczolt (eds.), The Cambridge handbook of pragmatics (Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics), 617-637. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781139022453.034Search in Google Scholar

Turner, Roy. 1984. The world in a grain of sand: Studies in conversational order. Contemporary Sociology. 13, 29.Search in Google Scholar

Turner, Victor. 1995. The ritual process: Structure and anti-structure. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.10.4324/9781315134666Search in Google Scholar

Watts, Richard J. 2003. Politeness Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511615184Search in Google Scholar

Werkhofer, Konrad. 1992. Traditional and modern views: the social constitution and the power of politeness. In Richard J. Watts & Konrad Ehlich (eds.). Politeness in Language. 155-199. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110199819.155Search in Google Scholar

Wuthnow, Robert. 1989. Meaning and moral order. Berkeley: University of California Press.10.1525/9780520909250Search in Google Scholar

Yabuuchi, Akio. 2006. Hierarchy politeness: What Brown and Levinson refused to see. Intercultural Pragmatics. 3(3). 323-351.10.1515/IP.2006.019Search in Google Scholar

Received: 2020-06-16
Accepted: 2020-07-28
Published Online: 2020-10-20
Published in Print: 2021-02-26

© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 16.5.2024 from https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/pr-2020-0031/html
Scroll to top button