Managing challenges on the front stage: The face-work strategies of musicians

Employing ethnographic fieldwork supported by semi-structured interviews, I examine how musicians—like all those who perform identity work—attempt to maintain a “correct” face that meets what they perceive to be the requirements of a particular context. When musicians’ presentations are somehow “wrong” for the moment, musicians choose from four face-work strategies—underscoring, substituting, deflecting, and neutralizing—in attempts to save face and perform an identity that is contextually appropriate. Theoretically, I expand upon Erving Goffman's theory of face-work by demonstrating how Bourdieusian field theory and insight on the qualities of capital can inform an understanding of face-saving practices. By showing how social actors succeed or fail in face-to-face interaction, this expanded model of face-work helps explain how situational stratification occurs in everyday encounters.

► I identify the face-work strategies musicians employ as part of their presentation work. ► Musicians respond to challenges by underscoring, substituting, deflecting, or neutralizing. ► Using Bourdieu's typology of capital, I show how resources are incorporated into face-work. ► I show how successful or failed face-work is consequential for situational stratification.