Most encounters between strangers in urban public spaces involve the ritual of civil inattention (Goffman 1963). Generalized diffusion of this ritual upholds the urban interaction order.
This article outlines a typology of infractions of the ritual of civil inattention, and focuses on two types: uncivil attention
and uncivil inattention. Drawing on interviews (n = 326) about participants’ most recent encounter with a rude
stranger in urban public space gathered by the Researching Incivilities in Everyday Life (RIEL) Project, variations between
verbally, physically, and gesturally initiated incivilities are examined. Data suggests a correlation between types of initiating
move and subsequent verbal exchange. Analysis demonstrates the value of ritual framing for understanding interactional conflict
between strangers, and indicates that the broader concept of incivility can supplement and extend existing impoliteness research
by encompassing both linguistic and non-linguistic forms of interactional conflict.
Alexander, J. C.2004a. “Rethinking Strangeness: From Structures in Space to Discourses in Civil Society.” Thesis Eleven 791: 87–104.
Alexander, J. C.2004b. “Cultural Pragmatics: Social Performance between Ritual and Strategy.” Sociological Theory 221: 527–573.
Alexander, J. C.2006. The Civil Sphere. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Alexander, J. C., B. Giesen, and J. L. Mast (Eds.). 2006. Social Performance: Symbolic Action, Cultural Pragmatics, and Ritual. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Anderson, E.2011. The Cosmopolitan Canopy: Race and Civility in Everyday Life. New York: Norton.
Bargiela-Chiappini, F.2003. “Face and Politeness: New (Insights) for Old (Concepts).” Journal of Pragmatics 351: 1453–1469.
Berger, C. R., and R. J. Calabrese. 1975. “Some Explorations in Initial Interaction and Beyond: Toward a Developmental Theory of Interpersonal Communication.” Human Communication Research 11: 99–112.
Blum, A. F., and P. McHugh. 1971. “The Social Ascription of Motives.” American Sociological Review 361: 98–109.
Bou-Franch, P., and Garcés-Conejos Blitvich, P.2014. “The Pragmatics of Textual Participation in the Social Media.” Journal of Pragmatics, 731: 1–3.
Bourriard, N.2002. Relational Aesthetics. Dijon: Les Presses du Réel.
Bousfield, D.2007. “Beginnings, Middles and Ends: A Biopsy of the Dynamics of Impolite Exchanges.” Journal of Pragmatics 391: 2185–2216.
Bousfield, D.2010. “Researching Impoliteness and Rudeness: Issues and Definitions.” In Interpersonal Pragmatics, ed. by M. Locher and S. Graham, 101–134. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
Bousfield, D.2018. “Face(t)s of Self and Identity in Interaction.” Journal of Politeness Research 141: 225–243.
Bousfield, D., and J. Culpeper. 2008. “Impoliteness: Eclecticism and Diaspora.” Journal of Politeness Research. 4(2): 161–168.
Bousfield, D., and Locher, M.2008. Impoliteness in language. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Brown, P., Levinson, S. C.1987. Politeness: some universals in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Brenner, N.2013. “Theses on Urbanization.” Public Culture 251: 85–114.
Collins, R.2005. Interaction Ritual Chains. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Culpeper, J.1996. “Towards an Anatomy of Impoliteness.” Journal of Pragmatics 251: 349–367.
Culpeper, J.2005. “Impoliteness and Entertainment in the Television Quiz Show: The Weakest Link.” Journal of Politeness Research. Language, Behaviour, Culture 11: 35–72.
Culpeper, J.2010. “Conventionalised Impoliteness Formulae.” Journal of Pragmatics 421: 3232–3245.
Culpeper, J.2011. Impoliteness: Using language to cause offence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Culpeper, J., M. Haugh, and D. Z. Kádár (Eds.). 2017. The Palgrave Handbook of Linguistic (Im)politeness. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Culpeper, J., Terkourafi, M.2017. “Pragmatic Approaches (Im)politeness,” in: The Palgrave Handbook of Linguistic (Im)Politeness, ed. by Culpeper, J., Haugh, M., Kádár, D. 11–39, London: Palgrave.
Duneier, M., and H. Molotch. 1999. “Talking City Trouble: Interactional Vandalism, Social Inequality, and the ‘Urban Interaction Problem’.” American Journal of Sociology 1041: 1263–1295. [URL]
Durkheim, É.1964. The Division of Labour in Society. New York: Free Press.
Durkheim, É.1995. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. New York: Free Press.
Dynel, M., and F. Poppi. 2019. “Risum teneatis, amici?: The Socio-Pragmatics of RoastMe Humour.” Journal of Pragmatics 1391: 1–21.
Eelen, G.2001. A critique of politeness theories. Manchester: St. Jerome.
Edmondson, W. and J. House. 1981. Let’s Talk, and Talk about It: A Pedagogic Interactional Grammar of English. München: Urban u. Schwarzenberg.
Evans, M., Jeffries, L., & O’Driscoll, J. (Eds.). 2019. The Routledge Handbook of Language in Conflict. New York: Routledge.
Gardner, C. B.1980. “Passing by: Street Remarks, Address Rights, and the Urban Female.” Sociological Inquiry 501: 328–356.
Gardner, C.1988. “Access Information: Public Lies and Private Peril.” Social Problems 351: 384–397.
Gardner, C.1995. Passing by: Gender and Public Harassment. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Garfinkel, H.1967. Studies in Ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.
Goffman, E.1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Anchor Books.
Goffman, E.1963. Behavior in Public Places: Notes on the Social Organization of Gatherings. New York: Free Press.
Goffman, E.1967. Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-to-Face Behavior. New York: Anchor Books.
Goffman, E.1971. Relations in Public: Microstudies of the Public Order. New York: Harper Row.
Goffman, E.1983. “The Interaction Order.” American Sociological Review 481: 1–17.
Goffman, E., and J. Verhoeven. 1980. “An Interview with Erving Goffman.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 261: 317–348.
Graham, S. L.2019. “Interaction and Conflict in Digital Communication.” In The Routledge Handbook of Language in Conflict, ed. by M. Evans, L. Jeffries, and J. O’Driscoll, pp. 310–327. New York: Routledge.
Hamilton, M. A.2012. “Verbal Aggression: Understanding the Psychological Antecedents and Social Consequences.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 311: 5–12.
Harris, J. W.1995. “Etiquette, Lynching, and Racial Boundaries in Southern History: A Mississippi Example.” The American Historical Review 1001: 387.
Horgan, M.2012. “Strangers and Strangership.” Journal of Intercultural Studies 331: 607–622.
Horgan, M.2017a. “Interaction, Indifference, Injustice: Elements of a Normative Theory of Urban Solidarity.” In Interrogating the Social: A Critical Sociology for the 21st Century, ed. by F. Kurasawa, 61–94. Heidelberg: Springer Berlin.
Horgan, M.2017b. “Mundane Mutualities: Solidarity and Strangership in Everyday Urban Life.” In Place, Diversity and Solidarity, ed. by Oosterlynck, S., Schuermans, N., and Loopmans, M., 19–32, New York: Routledge.
Horgan, M.2019b. “Review of ‘Politeness, Impoliteness and Ritual: Maintaining the Moral Order in Interpersonal Interaction’”. Contemporary Sociology 481, 318–320.
House, Juliane. 2013. “Developing Pragmatic Competence in English as a Lingua Franca: Using Discourse Markers to Express (Inter)Subjectivity and Connectivity.” Journal of Pragmatics 591: 57–67.
Ickes, W., A. Park, and R. L. Robinson. 2012. “F#!%ing Rudeness: Predicting the Propensity to Verbally Abuse Strangers.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 311: 75–94.
Ickes, W. J.2009. Strangers in a Strange Lab. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jackson, L., C. Harris, and G. Valentine. 2017. “Rethinking Concepts of the Strange and the Stranger.” Social & Cultural Geography 181: 1–15.
Kádár, D.2012. “Relational Ritual.” In Handbook of Pragmatics, ed. by J.-O. Östman and J. Verschueren, 1–40. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Kádár, D.2013. Relational Rituals and Communication. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Kádár, D.2017. Politeness, Impoliteness and Ritual: Maintaining the Moral Order in Interpersonal Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Katz, J.1999. How Emotions Work. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Kendrick, K., and P. Drew. 2016. “Recruitment: Offers, Requests, and the Organization of Assistance in Interaction.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 491: 1–19.
Khan, K.2019. “Hate Crimes: Language, Vulnerability and Conflict.” In The Routledge Handbook of Language in Conflict, ed. by M. Evans, L. Jeffries, and J. O’Driscoll, 417–432. New York: Routledge.
Korobov, N.2011. “Mate-Preference Talk in Speed-Dating Conversations.” Research on Language & Social Interaction 441: 186–209.
Lankenau, S.1999. “Panhandling Repertoires and Routines for Overcoming the Nonperson Treatment.” Deviant Behavior 201: 183–206.
Leech, G.1983. Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longman.
Leiter, M.2013. Analyzing and Theorizing the Dynamics of the Workplace Incivility Crisis. New York: Springer.
Liinamaa, S.2014. “Contemporary Art’s ‘Urban Question’ and Practices of Experimentation.” Third Text 281: 529–544.
Limberg, H.2009. “Impoliteness and Threat Responses.” Journal of Pragmatics 411: 1376–1394.
Locher, M.2010. “Introduction: Politeness and Impoliteness in Computer-Mediated Communication.” Journal of Politeness Research 6(1): 1–5.
Locher, M. & Graham, S.2010. Interpersonal Pragmatics. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
Locher, M., Watts, R.2005. Politeness Theory and Relational Work. Journal of Politeness Research 11, 9–33.
Lofland, L.1973. A World of Strangers: Order and Action in Urban Public Space. New York: Basic Books.
Lofland, L.1998. The Public Realm: Exploring the City’s Quintessential Social Territory. New York: Aldine De Gruyter.
Mills, C. W.1940. “Situated Actions and Vocabularies of Motive.” American Sociological Review 51: 904–913.
Mondada, L.2009. “Emergent Focused Interactions in Public Places: A Systematic Analysis of the Multimodal Achievement of a Common Interactional Space.” Journal of Pragmatics 411: 1977–1997.
Mondada, L.2018. “Greetings as a Device to Find Out and Establish the Language of Service Encounters in Multilingual Settings.” Journal of Pragmatics 1261: 10–28.
Morrill, C., D. A. Snow, and C. H. White (Eds.). 2005. Together Alone: Personal Relationships in Public Places. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Ontario Ministry of Infrastructure. 2013. Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe. Toronto: Ministry of Infrastructure. [URL]
Parvaresh, V., and T. Tayebi. 2018. “Impoliteness, Aggression and the Moral Order.” Journal of Pragmatics 1321: 91–107.
Raudenbush, D. T.2012. “Race and Interactions on Public Transportation: Social Cohesion and the Production of Common Norms and a Collective Black Identity.” Symbolic Interaction 351: 456–473.
Schutz, A.1970. On Phenomenology and Social Relations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Scott, M. B., and S. M. Lyman. 1968. “Accounts.” American Sociological Review 331: 46–62. [URL]
Sifianou, M.2019. “Im/politeness and In/Civility: A Neglected Relationship?” Journal of Pragmatics, 1471: 49–64.
Sifianou, M., & Tzanne, A.2010. “Conceptualizations of Politeness and Impoliteness in Greek.” Intercultural Pragmatics, 7(4): 661–687.
Simmel, G.1971. On Individuality and Social Forms. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Smith, G.1997. “Incivil Attention and Everyday Intolerance: Vicissitudes of Exercising in Public Places.” Perspectives on Social Problems 91: 59–79.
Smith, P., T. L. Phillips, and R. D. King. 2010. Incivility: The Rude Stranger in Everyday Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Smith, R. J.2017. “The Practical Organisation of Space, Interaction, and Communication in and as the Work of Crossing a Shared Space Intersection.” Sociologica 21: 1–19.
Stokoe, E.2010. “‘Have You Been Married, or …?’: Eliciting and Accounting for Relationship Histories in Speed-Dating Interaction.” Research on Language & Social Interaction 431: 260–282.
Svennevig, J.2014. “Direct and Indirect Self-Presentation in First Conversations.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 331: 302–327.
Sznaider, N.2001. The Compassionate Temperament: Care and Cruelty in Modern Society. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Terkourafi, M.2012. “Politeness and Pragmatics.” In The Cambridge Handbook of Pragmatics, ed. by K. Allan, and K. Jaszczolt, 617–637. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Terkourafi, M., and D. Kádár. 2017. “Convention and Ritual (Im)politeness.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Linguistic (Im)politeness, ed. by J. Culpeper, M. Haugh, and D. Kádár, 171–195. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Valentine, G.2008. “Living with Difference: Reflections on Geographies of Encounter.” Progress in Human Geography 321: 323–337.
Vergis, N., and M. Terkourafi. 2015. “The Role of the Speaker’s Emotional State in Im/politeness Assessments.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 341: 316–342.
Watts, R. J.2009. Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wesselmann, E., F. Cardoso, S. Slater, and K. Williams. 2012. “To Be Looked at as Though Air: Civil Attention Matters.” Psychological Science 231: 166–168.
Wirth, L.1938. “Urbanism as a Way of Life.” American Journal of Sociology 441: 1–24. [URL]
Wuthnow, R.1989. Meaning and Moral Order. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Zerubavel, E.2015. Hidden in Plain Sight: The Social Structure of Irrelevance. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cited by (22)
Cited by 22 other publications
Olakivi, Antero, Melisa Stevanovic, Henri Nevalainen, Pentti Henttonen & Niklas Ravaja
2024. Voicing experiences of ageist nonrecognition in performance appraisal interaction: complexities in constructing stories that counteract organisational ignorance. Culture and Organization► pp. 1 ff.
van Dorst, Isolde, Mathew Gillings & Jonathan Culpeper
2024. Sociopragmatic variation in Britain: A corpus-based study of politeness. Journal of Pragmatics 227 ► pp. 37 ff.
Abbott, Owen, Vanessa May, Sophie Woodward, Robert Meckin & Leah Gilman
2023. Masking and the (Re)making of the Public Realm. In Masking in the Pandemic [Consumption and Public Life, ], ► pp. 39 ff.
Abbott, Owen, Vanessa May, Sophie Woodward, Robert Meckin & Leah Gilman
2023. Introduction: Masks in the Pandemic, Masks in Everyday Life. In Masking in the Pandemic [Consumption and Public Life, ], ► pp. 1 ff.
Arminen, Ilkka A. T. & Anna S. M. Heino
2023. Civil inattention—On the sources of relational segregation. Frontiers in Sociology 8
Gao, Xiang & Qingrong Liu
2023. Dynamics and evaluations of impoliteness: Evidence from short videos of passenger disputes and public comments. Journal of Pragmatics 203 ► pp. 32 ff.
Haugh, Michael, Dániel Z. Kádár & Rosina Márquez Reiter
2022. Offence and morality: Pragmatic perspectives. Language & Communication 87 ► pp. 117 ff.
Vassenden, Anders & Ingrid Rusnes
2022. “I Say I Work at the University:” Norwegian Professors and Passing as Interaction Ritual. Symbolic Interaction 45:3 ► pp. 327 ff.
Horgan, Mervyn
2021. Sacred civility? An alternative conceptual architecture informed by cultural sociology. Journal of Politeness Research 17:1 ► pp. 9 ff.
Horgan, Mervyn
2024. Moral landscapes and morally meaningful encounters: how interaction ritual connects conversation analysis and cultural sociology. Frontiers in Sociology 9
Jaworski, Adam & Jackie Jia Lou
2021. #wordswewear: mobile texts, expressive persons, and conviviality in urban spaces. Social Semiotics 31:1 ► pp. 108 ff.
Leyland, Christopher & James Riley
2021. Enhanced English conversations-for-learning: Constructing and using notes for deferred correction sequences. Linguistics and Education 66 ► pp. 100976 ff.
2020. A Shared Everyday Ethic of Public Sociability: Outdoor Public Ice Rinks as Spaces for Encounter. Urban Planning 5:4 ► pp. 143 ff.
Zapata-Barrero, Ricard
2020. Republicanism, diversity and public space in contemporary political theory: the normative basis of intercultural citizenship. Citizenship Studies 24:8 ► pp. 1066 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.