City dwellers simultaneously read others and perform themselves

Evidence

This situation, already complex, becomes even more so when we realize that the city dweller (or any human, but our concern is only with urban ones) is not only picking up information about the other, coding it, and acting upon it; he is simultaneously and interrelatedly giving off information about himself which the other codes and acts upon. That is, he needs to know how to code the other and what behavior to expect from him. But he also needs the skills to apply the coding scheme to himself and to bring off his own “part” without a flaw. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 547

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the reader’s purpose on the observing self — the reader (Cole) is also a coded, performed figure, not just a reader.