[1]: 44 [2]: 855 [3] Privacy and civil liberties are limited or non-existent in total institutions, as all aspects of life including sleep, play, and work, are conducted in the same place.
[1][3][5]: 1 Fine and Manning, however, note that Goffman heard the term in lectures by Everett Hughes (likely during the late-1940s seminar, "Work and Occupations").
David Rothman states that "historians have confirmed the validity of Goffman's concept of 'total institutions' which minimizes the differences in formal mission to establish a unity of design and structure.
[13]: 495 Sociologists have pointed out that tourist venues, such as cruise ships, are acquiring many of the characteristics of total institutions.
[14][15]: 106 Sociologist Steffen Roth has demonstrated that, if realized, Spaceship Earth would epitomise the most total institution ever created in human history.