Elites and ordinariness in cross-status encounters: Adding Goffman's ritual interaction order to sociological interpretations

Abstract

Elites and higher-class people often downplay – even conceal – their status when interacting with people of lower class/status than themselves. This finding has been reported from several countries in the Global North. It is also shown in research from disparate academic fields and disciplines: the sociology of class, psychology, cognitive decision-making, and microsociology. This paper reviews and synthesises the literature on elites and high-status people who downplay social differences in cross-status social interaction. It makes two main contributions: First, I show that the phenomenon is more widespread transnationally than especially Nordic researchers have assumed. The second contribution comes from tracing the theoretical interpretations in the research. I notice tendencies of an individual – structure dualism in some strands of research, with the relevant analytical levels being the broader moral repertoires and predispositions. Other strands of research suffer from overly individualist interpretations. I argue that what is missing in most current research on cross-status interaction, is an adequate theoretical grasp of the social situation. I discuss how the study of cross-status interaction can be fertilised by the classical microsociological idea of situations’ existence in themselves, a social domain that cannot be reduced to dispositions or broader culture. I engage here especially Erving Goffman's ritual interaction order. From this vantage point, I also highlight situational variation, something attended to by few studies of cross-status interaction.