Normality and trust in Goffman's theory of interaction order

The article asserts that Goffman's concept of normality comes close to the notion of trust as a protective mechanism that prevents chaos and disorder by providing us with feelings of safety, certainty, and familiarity. Arguin g that to account for the tendency of social order to be seen as normal we need to conceptualize trust as the routine background of everyday interacti on, the article analyzes Goffmans concepts of normal appearances, stigma, a nd frames as devices for endowing social order with predictability, reliabi lity, and legibility. For Goffman, normality is a collective achievement, w hich is possible because of the orderliness of interactional activities, wh ich is-in turn-predicated "on a large base of shared cognitive presuppositi ons, if not normative ones, and self-sustained restraints".