Civil inattention is the process whereby strangers who are in close proximity demonstrate that they are aware of one another, without imposing on each other – a recognition of the claims of others to a public space, and of their own

personal boundaries Personal boundaries or the act of'' setting boundaries'' is a life skill that has been popularized by self help authors and support groups since the mid 1980s. It is the practice of openly communicating and asserting personal values as way to ...

In practice

Civil inattention is the term introduced by

Erving Goffman Erving Goffman (11 June 1922 – 19 November 1982) was a Canadian-born sociology, sociologist, Social psychology (sociology), social psychologist, and writer, considered by some "the most influential American sociologist of the twentieth ...

to describe the care taken to maintain public order among strangers and thus to make anonymised life in cities possible. Rather than either ignoring or staring at others, civil inattention involves the unobtrusive and peaceful scanning of others so as to allow for neutral interaction. Through brief

eye contact Eye contact occurs when two people look at each other's eyes at the same time. In humans, eye contact is a form of nonverbal communication and can have a large influence on social behavior. Coined in the early to mid-1960s, the term came from ...

with an approaching stranger, a person both acknowledges their presence and forecloses the possibility of more personal contact or of

conversation Conversation is interactive communication between two or more people. The development of conversational skills and etiquette is an important part of socialization. The development of conversational skills in a new language is a frequent focus ...

. Civil inattention is thus a means of making

privacy Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...

possible within a crowd through culturally accepted forms of self-distancing. Seemingly (though not in reality) effortless, such civility is a way of shielding others from personal claims in public – an essential feature of the abstract, impersonal relationships demanded by the open society.

Negative aspects

Civil inattention can lead to feelings of

loneliness Loneliness is an unpleasant emotional response to perceived isolation. Loneliness is also described as social paina psychological mechanism which motivates individuals to seek social connections. It is often associated with a perceived lack ...

invisibility Invisibility is the state of an object that cannot be seen. An object in this state is said to be ''invisible'' (literally, "not visible"). The phenomenon is studied by physics and perceptual psychology. Since objects can be seen by light in ...

, and it reduces the tendency to feel responsibility for the well-being of others. Newcomers to

urban area An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities, t ...

s 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.

Insanity of place

Goffman saw many classic indications of madness as violations of the norm of civil inattention speaking to strangers, or shying away from every passing glance.Erving Goffman, ''Relations in Public'' (Penguin 1972) p. 415

In practice

Negative aspects

Insanity of place

See also

References

Further reading