civil inattention

{{Short description|Behaviors which allow strangers to maintain social order in crowded public spaces}}

Civil inattention is the respectful recognition of a stranger in an urban public space without treating them as an object of curiosity or intent.{{Cite book| editor-last1=Jacobsen| editor-first1=Michael Hviid | editor-last2=Smith | editor-first2=Greg | publisher = Routledge| isbn = 978-1-00-316086-1| chapter=Interaction in Public Spaces | last = Smith| first = Robin James| title = The Routledge International Handbook of Goffman Studies | date = 2022}}{{rp|110}} Civil inattention establishes that each recognizes the other's personhood without engagement. For example, people passing on a street will typically glance at each other, noticing and then withdrawing their attention. This minimal recognition is contrasted with other interactions such as the "hate stare" of the racist or the refusal to notice a beggar. Civil inattention is one of Erving Goffman's most celebrated concepts in his analyses of the rituals of public conduct in everyday life.{{Cite book| editor-last1=Jacobsen| editor-first1=Michael Hviid | editor-last2=Smith | editor-first2=Greg | publisher = Routledge| isbn = 978-1-00-316086-1| chapter=Ritual | last = Smith| first = Greg| title = The Routledge International Handbook of Goffman Studies | date = 2022}}{{rp|32}}

Civil inattention is a strategy to overcome the challenges of urban life, in particular living in close proximity to "others", all the while showing indifferences. Such behaviors may lead to alienation, thinking of strangers as objects. However, urban life also expands individual freedom. Rural or tribal culture is based upon a communal identity with kinship and close social ties and little or no interaction with strangers.{{Cite journal| doi = 10.26791/sarkiat.1068037| issn = 1308-9633| volume = 14| issue = 1| pages = 19–28| last1 = Tan| first1 = Mehmet| last2 = Fırat| first2 = Muhammet| title = The Changing Structure of the Tribe in the Process of Urbanization| journal = Şarkiyat| access-date = 2025-02-28| date = 2022-04-30| url = https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/sarkiat/issue/70019/1068037}}

Positive functions

Civil inattention is required to avoid the otherwise problematic encounters between strangers in an urban culture, to behave with courtesy while maintaining strangeness. Situations often studied are those in which strangers must share a public space in closer proximity than normal, as when using mass transportation, riding an elevator, or in a waiting room.{{Cite journal| doi = 10.1111/j.0021-8308.2005.00263.x| issn = 1468-5914| volume = 35| issue = 1| pages = 41–67| last = Hirschauer| first = Stefan| title = On Doing Being a Stranger: The Practical Constitution of Civil Inattention| journal = Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour| access-date = 2025-03-01| date = 2005| url = https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.0021-8308.2005.00263.x| url-access = subscription}}{{Cite journal| doi = 10.1111/bjso.12828| issn = 2044-8309| volume = 64| issue = 1| pages = –12828| last1 = Diefenbach| first1 = Sarah| last2 = Riehle| first2 = Anna| last3 = Jannott| first3 = Hannah| last4 = Vornhagen| first4 = Joëlle-Sophie| last5 = Stoll| first5 = Johannes| last6 = Markhoff| first6 = Lea| last7 = von Terzi| first7 = Pia| title = Psychological Needs Related to Civil Inattention: A Qualitative and Quantitative View on Public Encounters| journal = British Journal of Social Psychology| date = 2025| pmid = 39604691| pmc = 11602955}} Rather than either ignoring or staring at others, civil inattention involves the unobtrusive and peaceful scanning of others to allow for neutral interaction.{{Cite book| publisher = Pearson Education| isbn = 978-0-13-123283-9| last1 = Baldwin| first1 = Elaine| last2 = Longhurst| first2 = Brian| title = Introducing cultural studies. Rev ed| location = Harlow| date = 2004}}{{rp|396,276}} The typical behaviors observed to maintain strangeness include not staring or talking.{{Cite journal| doi = 10.1177/1468795X19861086| issn = 1468-795X| volume = 20| issue = 4| pages = 257–280| last = Swedberg| first = Richard| title = On the Use of Abstractions in Sociology: The Classics and Beyond| journal = Journal of Classical Sociology| access-date = 2025-02-28| date = 2020-11-01| url = https://doi.org/10.1177/1468795X19861086| url-access = subscription}}

Seemingly (though not in reality) effortless,{{Cite book| publisher = New York, Basic Books| isbn = 978-0-465-06895-1| last = Goffman| first = Erving| title = Relations in Public; Microstudies of the Public Order| access-date = 2025-03-03| date = 1971| url = http://archive.org/details/relationsinpubli00ervi}}{{rp|385}} such civility is a way of shielding others from personal claims in public.{{Cite book| publisher = Penguin Adult| isbn = 978-0-14-100757-1| last = Sennett| first = Richard| title = The Fall of Public Man| date = 2002}}{{rp|264}}

Negative functions

Civil inattention can lead to feelings of loneliness or invisibility, and it reduces the tendency to feel responsibility for the well-being of others. Newcomers to urban areas are often struck by the impersonality of such routines, which they may see as callous and uncaring, rather than as necessary for the peaceful co-existence of close-packed millions.{{Cite book| publisher = Verso| isbn = 978-1-85984-934-7| last = Moretti| first = Franco| title = Modern Epic: The World-system from Goethe to García Márquez| date = 1996}}{{rp|156}}

Other issues

The wearing of masks in public poses challenges for civil inattention, since they conceal many of the facial nuances and expressions that convey such inattention by acknowledging the presence of another while signaling a lack of untoward interest. Without the signifying presence of the rest of the face, such messages can be obscured.{{Cite journal| doi = 10.1177/1367877921997450| issn = 1367-8779| volume = 24| issue = 4| pages = 567–583| last1 = Andrejevic| first1 = Mark| last2 = Davies| first2 = Hugh| last3 = DeSouza| first3 = Ruth| last4 = Hjorth| first4 = Larissa| last5 = Richardson| first5 = Ingrid| title = Situating 'Careful Surveillance'| journal = International Journal of Cultural Studies| access-date = 2025-02-28| date = 2021-07-01| url = https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877921997450| url-access = subscription}}

Street harassment, making comments or noises directed at strangers, is sometimes referred to as a breach of the norm of civil inattention. If civil inattention is a sign of respect, harassment is harmful not due to danger, but the lowering of the status of those receiving uncivil attention, usually women.{{Cite journal| doi = 10.1177/15248380211021608| issn = 1524-8380| volume = 24| issue = 1| pages = 125–138| last1 = Fileborn| first1 = Bianca| last2 = O’Neill| first2 = Tully| title = From "Ghettoization" to a Field of Its Own: A Comprehensive Review of Street Harassment Research| journal = Trauma, Violence, & Abuse| access-date = 2025-02-28| date = 2023-01-01| pmid = 34098825| url = https://doi.org/10.1177/15248380211021608}} Some see the prevalence of such harassment, also called "catcalling", as a response by men to their perception of declining status.{{Cite journal| doi = 10.1007/s12119-022-09998-y| issn = 1936-4822| volume = 27| issue = 3| pages = 1140–1159| last = Fairchild| first = Kimberly| title = Understanding Street Harassment as Gendered Violence: Past, Present, and Future| journal = Sexuality & Culture| access-date = 2025-02-28| date = 2023-06-01| url = https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-022-09998-y| url-access = subscription}}

=Insanity of place=

Goffman saw many classic indications of madness as violations of the norm of civil inattention, like speaking to strangers or shying away from every passing glance.{{rp|415}}{{clarify|date=March 2016}}

civil inattention

Positive functions

Negative functions

Other issues

=Insanity of place=

See also

References

Further reading