 Though Goffman is often associated with the symbolic interaction school of sociological thought , he did not see himself as a representative of it , and so Fine and Manning conclude that he " does not easily fit within a specific school of sociological thought " . His ideas are also " difficult to reduce to a number of key themes " ; his work can be broadly described as developing " a comparative , <unk> sociology that aimed to produce <unk> about human behavior " . 
