Situating stigma: Accounting for deviancy, difference and categorial relations.
J Eval Clin Pract 2022;
28:890-896. [PMID:
36006683 PMCID:
PMC9804660 DOI:
10.1111/jep.13749]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2022] [Revised: 07/19/2022] [Accepted: 07/25/2022] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
This article returns to Goffman's early formulations of 'stigma' in outlining a critique of contemporary social scientific uses and abuses of the concept. We argue that whilst Goffman's discussion of stigma is not without its troubles, it has mostly been approached in a manner that treats the concept outside of an appreciation of stigma as a phenomenon of interaction order. More specifically, we discuss and demonstrate how stigma serves an analytic gloss for social relations observable in social settings and in accounts of difference, deviance and degradation. We analyse both social scientific and lay uses of the stigma concept in relation to care-experienced young children and self-harm to demonstrate the shared categorisational practices and logics that are often obscured through theoretical treatments of stigma. The recommendation is, then, that an attention to 'stigma' in care settings must begin with the conditions in and from which stigma might come to feature as a sense-making device for all parties.
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