New Institutionalism in Everyday Life

In this paper, I examine how new institutionalism is similar to, and may expand upon Goffman’s dramaturgical analysis of human action and social life. I argue that while Goffman’s dramaturgical lens is useful for examining micro-social interactions among individuals, the ‘audience,’ and the organization, integrating new institutionalism as a theoretical framework into Goffman’s framework of dramaturgical analysis may provide the tools for combined micro-/macro-social analysis that incorporates the overarching influence of the institution (the ‘theater’) on micro-social interactions. I examine the potential of combining new institutionalism with dramaturgical analysis and I provide a brief example using ‘education’ as the institution to demonstrate how new institutional theory may be used in conjunction with Goffman’s dramaturgical theory.