The focus of Erving Goffman's work was the organization of observable, everyday behavior, usually but not always among the unacquainted in urban settings. Using a variety of qualitative methods, Goffman developed classifications of the different elements of social interaction. The hallmark of his approach was the assumption that these classifications were heuristic, simplifying tools for sociological analysis that did not capture the complexity of lived experience. Goffman defined a frame as a way of organizing experiences: we use frames to identify what is taking place. For example, a story may be a joke, a warning, a lesson, an invitation and so on. Frame analysis is therefore the study of the ‘organization of experience'. The most fundamental frameworks are ‘primary frameworks' which reveal what is ‘really' happening either in the natural or social world. The meaning of a primary framework can be challenged in various ways. It can also be ‘keyed': this occurs when its meaning is transformed into something patterned on but independent of the initial frame. For example, a keying may convince us that what appears to be a fight is in fact just play. However, caution is needed because every keying can itself be re-keyed. In addition to keys, there are ‘fabrications'. These are frames that are designed to mislead others. Fabrications are ‘benign' when they are for the benefit of the audience or ‘exploitative' when they are for the benefit of the fabricator. In an attempt to prevent the keying, re-keying and fabrications of frames, we often attempt to ‘anchor' them so that audiences can accept them as real. With this, Goffman shows that the development of general classifications to be used to understand concrete examples of the interaction order.