Civil inattention
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Civil inattention is the process whereby individuals who are in the same physical setting of interaction demonstrate to one another that they are aware of one another, but without being either threatening or over-friendly.
When moving in areas of strangers who have the potential to disrupt our identities the most we can do is to try and remain inconspicuous. Erving Goffman claims that civil inattention makes life in cities possible– it is characterised by elaborate modes of pretending that we do not look, we do not pay attention, we do not listen or we assume a posture that conveys we do not see or hear what others are doing. It is manifested in the avoidance of eye contact which culturally speaking can serve as an invitation to open up conversations between strangers. We must be attentive when walking not to bump into others while pretending we are not looking or we are not being seen. Newcomers to the urban context have often been struck by such routines, they see a particular callousness or cold indifference in populations and can become lost in the crowd. There is a feeling of abandonment to our own resources leading in turn to loneliness. Loneliness as it appears is the price to pay for privacy. Anonymity can mean emancipation from the noxious and vexing surveillance and interference of others, who in smaller and more personalized contexts would feel entitled to curious & meddle in our lives. An invisibility by the application of civil inattention offers a scope for freedom that is unthinkable under different conditions. “This is fertile soil for the intellect” as Georg Simmel pointed out, urban life and abstract thinking are resonant and develop together. Along with the cumbersome curiosity of others, their sympathetic interests and willingness to help may disappear. Cool human indifference fuelled by manic interactions that are driven by exchanges of goods and services. The ethical character of human relationships is lost. A human relationship is moral when a feeling of responsibility arises in us for the welfare and well-being of others. Our responsibility is moral as long as it is totally selfless and unconditioned. Responsibility for other human beings arises simply because they are human beings and the moral impulses to give help that follows from this requires no argument, legitimation or proof beyond that. People who live close to one another and affect each other’s condition and well-being may well not experience moral proximity they remain oblivious to the moral significance of their actions. Thanks to the rules of civil inattention, strangers are not treated as enemies and most of the time escape the fate that tends to befall the enemy—they are not targets of hostility and aggression. Strangers of which we are all, at some time, are a part deprived of the protection that moral proximity offers.
Giddens, Anthony "Sociology" 2nd edition polity press 1994 Bauman, Zygmunt & May, Tim "Thinking Sociologically" 2nd edition Blackwell Publishing 2001 Goffman, E (1984) "The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life" (Harmondsworth: Penguin) originally published in 1959
