Introduction The work of Michel Foucault and Erving Goffman centered around two different concepts of how identity is formed through the process of power and expert knowledge. This essay will discuss the ideas of Michel Foucault, a French social theorist. His theories addressed the relationship between power and knowledge and how both are used as a form of social control across society. The essay will examine Foucault's work in The Body and Sexuality, Madness and Civilization, and Discipline and Punishment, which shows how he conceptualized power and identity on a basis of Marxist and macro scholarship. The essay will also address the ideas of Erving Goffman, a Canadian-born sociologist, whose key study was what he called interactional order, that is, how the functions of ritual and order of each individual member of society, in everyday life , interact to form social order. He suggested the metaphor of the stage, where people play roles in specific everyday situations using trust and touch, control of body gestures, face and gaze, and the use of language to set the parameters of their social interactions. People individually participate in these rules of conduct to produce social order. Looking at Goffman's work on Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Stigma, and Asylum, Goffman argues that it is these interactions, or the interactional order, that construct society. This essay seeks to provide insight into how Foucault and Goffman compare and contrast their theories to understand how the exercise of power and expert knowledge construct individuals' identities. Michel Foucault's Theory: Michel Foucault makes a number of points in relation to power and offers definitions... half of paper... (2007). Erving Goffman as a systematic social theorist. In: Social theory and modern sociology. 5th ed. Cambridge: Polity Press. p109.Goffman, E (1959). Presentation of self in daily life. New York: double again. p1.Goffman, E. (1990). Control of information and personal identity. In: Stigma. London: Penguin. p.60-61.Goffman, E (1991). Asylums: essays on the social situation of the mentally ill and other prisoners. London: Penguin. p4.Haralambos, M and Holborn, M (2000). Themes and perspectives of sociology. 5th ed. London: HarperCollins Publisher Limited. p635-639.Macionis, J and Plummer, K (2005). Sociology A comprehensive introduction. 3rd ed. Essex: Pearson Education Limited. p.436.Staples, A (2009). Understanding sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press. p29.Stones, R. (2008). Erving Goffmann. In: Williams, R. Key Sociological Thinkers. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 184-196.