Every society seems to develop its own conception of what is "essential" to, and characteristic of, the two sex classes, this conception embracing both praised and dispraised attributes. Here are ideals of masculinity and feminini- ty, understandings about ultimate human nature which provide grounds (at least in Western society) for identifying the whole of the person, and provide also a source of accounts that can be drawn on in a million ways to excuse, justify, explain, or disapprove the behavior of an individual or the arrange- ment under which he lives, these accounts being given both by the individual who is accounted for and by such others as have found reason to account for him.

This nurse seemed to take initiative, although she appeared to be shy and with- drawn, unlike the head nurses on the medi- cal wards who happened to have a more outgoing personality.

. It cannot be programmed, despitethe structural an d cultural ‘groundwork’. However, the interaction re ect s these externalconditions in itsel

The ‘groundwork’ for classroom interaction is lai d outside the classroom, an d outsidethe school

The working consensus orients toward a particular definition of the situation, which includes status and roles. But for different settings there will be different definitions of the situation, some of which include status and some not. In my classroom, for instance, I can effectively maintain my social superiority by successfully performing as a teacher. Goffman is careful to point out, however, that I can do so only through the cooperation of others. When I go home on the trolley, however, the definition of the situation does not include any particular sta

In all these instances people are mobilized totake their places—important or minor, casual orregular, voluntary or involuntary—in a collectiveenterprise carried on in a somewhat establishedand expected way

Henotes,forexample,thatduelingisandhasalwaysbeenalmostentirelyamaledomain.

As a space of potential and active forces, the field is also a field of struggles aimed at preserving or transforming the configuration of these forces. Concretely, the field as a structure of objective relations of force between positions undergirds and guides the strategies whereby the occupants of these positions seek, individually or collectively to safeguard or improve their position, and to impose the principle of hierarchization most favorable to their own products. The strategies of agents depend on their position in the field, that is, in the distribution of the specific capital

defines the situation

Positions stand in relationships of domination, subordination or equivalence (homology) to each other by virtue of the access they afford to the goods or resources (capital) which are at stake in the field.

Perhaps behind a willingness to accept the way things are ordered is the brutal fact of one's place in the social structure and the real or imagined cost of allowing oneself to be singled out as a malcontent

our experience of the world has a confrontational characte

For this reason, teachers (and princi- pals who abide by their expectations) carry on an essentially secretive relationship vis-a-vis parents and the community, try- ing to prevent any event which will give these groups a perma- nent place of authority in the school situation. The emphasis on never admitting mistakes of school personnel to parents is an attempt to prevent these outsiders (who would not be subject to teacher control) from getting any excuse which might justify their intrusion into and possible destruction of the existing authority system

authority, a set of shared understandings specifying the amount and kind of control each kind of person involved in the institution is to have over others: who is allowed to do what, and who may give orders to whom.

This authority is sub- ject to stresses and possible change to the degree that partici- pants ignore the shared understandings and refuse to operate in terms of them

Here I want to point to the existence of devices which teachers develop or grow into which allow them some means of defense in face-to-face interaction with the par- ent.

thout symbolic power, when Kox did the same thing she was crucified by the teachers.1

he deference that Carrol acquired during interactions with the teachers is symbolic power in potential form. In time, Carrol deployed this symbolic power to successfully redefine the school's copy policy, putting a more restrictive policy in the place of a liberal one. W

argue that symbolic capital (defer ence) is a credit that can be deployed as sym bolic power. Mystified from social interaction and the other forms of capital, symbolic capi tal is symbolic power in its potential form, power which is realized in successful efforts to define actions, situations, and events in ways that induce compliance.

controlling the flow of information and mobi lizing support for various interpretations

ontrolling definitions allows one to control interaction, but it is also the symbolic power to change interactions. At stake is not only the maintenance of an order, but also the very power to define the meanings and actions that comprise that order, an impor tant but unnoticed form of control.

eference is sym bolic power in potential form: once deference is acquired, it can be deployed as the symbol ic power to frame actions, situations, and events in ways that induce compliance and constitute the social order. Drawing from Bourdieu, I argue that this process is shaped by forms of cultural capital that are linked to larger institutions. Cultural capital is a tool that people use to craft a demeanor that is pre sented in interaction. W

offman provides a virtuoso account of the interaction order sui generis, but declines to develop the notion of power that is implicit in his work.

ourdieu develops a notion of symbolic power (the power to define)