Front region
From Geography
This term is deriving from the book "The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life" from the social psychologist Erving Goffman. A front region is not so much an actual space as it is more a social mode of acting. The front space equals the area of social action in which we perform, as where a back region equals the social area of recovering. One finds himself in a front space if he can be accounted for his actions, meaning that he is under social constraints. As this is a term which speaks about situations in which we have to apply to some broadly accepted norms, it implies that there excist some incentives to hold back inappropriate thoughts. At the same time it is also possible for individuals to act using different 'fronts'. This refers to the different social positions from which one can act. So, one can for instance come out as an authoritarian teacher during classes, while at home he acts as a caring dad for his own children.
The term front region is introduced by Goffman and used by Anthony Giddens. As where Goffman especially spoke about examples out of human interaction, Giddens gave the term a more spatial implication. By combining this 'back and front region theory' with 'time geography' from Torsten Hägerstrand, Giddens came to the conclusion that social structure is represented in spatial structure.
References:
Orgtheory.net http://orgtheory.wordpress.com/2010/03/28/goffmans-front-and-backstages/
For clear examples see http://soc302.tripod.com/soc_302rocks/id2.html
Published by Lorenzo Goudsmits (s0827991) & Lisanne Dols (s0822701)
