Moral career

The concept of career has an important theoretical history and has been used in numerous studies to describe processes of becoming, impression management and identity performance. Whilst this important research has successfully documented the contingencies of linear progression, the moral aspect of this work is often overlooked. Goffman’s work on moral career intentionally focused on how people attempt to demonstrate competence and maintain credibility. This chapter provides an overview of Goffman’s work on moral career and shows how his approach is relevant for studying a wide range of activities outside the walls of a psychiatric hospital. By drawing on findings from an ethnographic study of skydiving, our aim is to show how Goffman’s concept of moral career can be usefully employed to illustrate the performative techniques and processes of becoming a skydiver. The chapter concludes by considering what areas of social life tend to be neglected in moral career research and suggests possibilities for future research.