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One-upmanship and putdowns: the aggressive use of interaction rituals in face-to-face diplomacy
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The authors argue that leaders often take advantage of or outright flout what the sociologist Erving Goffman calls the prevailing "ceremonial idiom" of an interaction, that is the intersubjective understanding they share on what rituals to perform and how to perform them to realize a number of political and personal objectives, with larger international consequences.Abstract:
When leaders meet in person, they perform a wide range of interaction rituals. They dress for the occasion, greet each other and shake hands, exchange pleasantries and gifts, arrive at the meeting venue and have themselves seated according to protocol, and so on. What do they make of the performance of such rituals? In this paper, I argue that leaders often take advantage of or outright flout what the sociologist Erving Goffman calls the prevailing ‘ceremonial idiom’ of an interaction – that is the intersubjective understanding they share on what rituals to perform and how to perform them – to realize a number of political and personal objectives, with larger international consequences. The ‘ceremonial idiom’ is deliberately transgressed and a counterpart's ‘face’ threatened – overtly but more often subtly – to achieve what are commonly known as ‘one-upmanship’ and ‘putdowns’ in interpersonal contact. Empirically, I demonstrate my argument with over two dozen episodes of face-to-face diplomacy across six categories of interaction rituals: the identity of leaders, gestural, spatial–physical, task-embedded, linguistic, and communication rules. I also outline several directions for future research.read more
Citations
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Khrushchev: The Man and His Era: Taubman, William: New York: W. W. Norton 768 pp., Publication Date: March 2003
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“Hanging Out” while Studying “Up”: Doing Ethnographic Fieldwork in International Relations
TL;DR: In this paper, a methodological argument on how to do ethnographic fieldwork amid social elites and inaccessible bureaucracies in international politics is presented. And the authors illustrate this methodological strategy and its payoffs by reflecting upon a year of fieldwork among the diplomats and bureaucrats of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), an informal, quiet, and often sub rosa diplomatic project run by a band of mostly authoritarian states in Southeast Asia.
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Summits: Six Meetings That Shaped the Twentieth Century
TL;DR: The Summits: Six Meetings that Shaped the Twentieth Century as mentioned in this paper is a collection of six meetings that shaped the twenty-first century, including the First World War.
References
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Book
The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
TL;DR: For instance, in the case of an individual in the presence of others, it can be seen as a form of involuntary expressive behavior as discussed by the authors, where the individual will have to act so that he intentionally or unintentionally expresses himself, and the others will in turn have to be impressed in some way by him.
Politeness : Some Universals in Language Usage
TL;DR: Gumperz as discussed by the authors discusses politeness strategies in language and their implications for language studies, including sociological implications and implications for social sciences. But he does not discuss the relationship between politeness and language.
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Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage
TL;DR: This paper presents an argument about the nature of the model and its implications for language studies and Sociological implications and discusses the role of politeness strategies in language.
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The Strategy of Conflict
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose a theory of interdependent decision based on the Retarded Science of International Strategy (RSIS) for non-cooperative games and a solution concept for "noncooperative" games.
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Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-To-Face Behavior
TL;DR: Goffman's Interaction Ritual as mentioned in this paper is an interesting account of daily social interaction viewed with a new perspective for the logic of our behavior in such ordinary circumstances as entering a crowded elevator or bus.