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Giddens, A. (1991) Modernity and self-identity (chapters 1 and 2) GIDDENS, Anthony. Modernity and self-identity : self and society in the late modern age. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991, 256 s. ISBN 0-8047-1944-6.
Notes:
Rethinking of modernity is a fundamental sociological problem o
modern institutions differ in:
dynamism
undercutting of traditional habits and customs
global impact
sociology is an inherent element of the institutional reflexivity of modernity
reflexivity o
the institutionalized principle of radical doubt
o
knowledge in form of hypotheses
o
means of forming of self in high modernity
o
accumulation of practical knowledge
3
serves to organise, to alter the aspects of social life they report on or analyse
14 knowledge constitutive to the social life (not just incidental)
the self in high modernity o
o
o
3
trust
means of achieving an early ontological sense of security
‘leap into faith’
a crucial concept of organization of the social world
risk reflexivity
influence of distant happenings to individuals` self
the media
a new world - an unitary framework of experiences o
basic axes of time and space
“In the post-traditional order of modernity, and against the backdrop of new
forms of mediated experience, self-identity becomes a reflexively organised 5
endeavour.”
“The reflexive project of the self, which consists in the sustaining of
coherent, yet continuously revised, biographical narratives, takes place in the context of multiple choices as filtered through abstract systems”
5
significance of lifestyles
negotiation among the diversity of choices, dialectical interplay of local and global and the loss of the hold of tradition
throughout the social scale
standardizing influences: capitalism and commodification
openness of social life, pluralisation of contexts of action, authorities
1
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reflexive life planning with risks mediated through the expert knowledge being considered
the influences on the body
6
the body being perceived as less extrinsically given - itself reflexively mobilized
Narcissism? Rather an expression of concern and control, constructing the body
pursuit of bodily regimes
global/local - reproduction strategies, r eproductive technologies
Self-identity forms a trajectory for us across the different institutional settings of modernity over the durée of what used to be called the `life
o
cycle`
14
A biography is not possessed, but actively constructed and lived
14
Reflexively organized around the information of possible ways of life
the transformation of intimacy
6
pure relationship as prototypical of the new spheres of personal life
reflexively controlled over the long term
traditional constrains dissolved, relationship evaluated on its own criteria only
Sequestration of experience o
Life politics
A life in a constant crisis o
8
contact with the natural sphere provided through media and expert knowledge
commitment – trust
9
danger and opportunity in the life of the modern man
Modernity in general consideration o
Modernity:
institutions and modes of behaviour established first in the post feudal Europe, which have increasingly become world-historical in their impact in the 20th century
14-15
industrialism - maintains an important but not definite dimension
capitalism - commodity production and competitive markets, commodification of labour power
Foucauldian disciplines and surveillance
Monopolization and regulation of means of violence
A nation-state
o
Means of reflexively monitored collective action - policies and plans
the rise of organisation
dynamism, discontinuousness
reorganization of time and space
globally synchronized and gradually less dependent on situatedness of place 16
dissolution of connectedness of time and space, creating empty (abstract) dimensions of time and space
2
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o
Expansion of disembedding (differentiated) mechanisms
18
Abstract systems
symbolic tokens o
media of exchange which have standard value
expert systems o
deploying modes of technical knowledge which have validity independent of their practitioners and users
Trust in disembedding mechanisms is not confined to lay people only. No one can grasp more than a tiny part of the knowledge and has to rely o n the others
o
22
Reflexivity
20
not a simple accumulation of knowledge
susceptibility of social relations and relations to nature to chronic state of revision
modern science undermined the enlightenment period notion of science, which gave birth to it in the first place
existential parameters not confined to philosophers, appropriated by the lay people
28 change doesn’t conform neither to human expectations nor human
control
“The anticipation that the social and natural environments would
increasingly be subject to rational ordering has not proved to be 28
valid”
Fate risk o
Modernity – risk society (Beck), reflexively mobilised and responsible
o
Risk assessment and evaluation are central
mediation of experience o
modernity is inseparable from its own media
o
media and the collage effect
o
modernity dissociates, fragments postmodernity
24
globalizing tendencies and the self o
universalist nature, expansive
o
the dialectic of local and global
o
personal identity on the other side of the global/local dialectic relation
The reflexivity of modernity extends into the core of the self
32
the self becomes a reflexive project
32
self has to be explored and constructed as a part of a reflexive process of connecting personal and social change
abstract systems centrally involved in the formation and the continuity of the self
Lifestyles and life plans o
Therapy
o
Self-actualization
3
33
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o
“A lifestyle can be defined as a more or less integrated set of practices which an
individual embraces, not only because such pra ctices fulfil utilitarian needs, but because they give material form to a particular narrative of self- identity.”
Routines followed reflexively open to change
Work, consumption
Multiplicity of choices, but not all open to everyone
81
82
Features of classification, not just results
Involves unity, choices ordered into a compatible pattern – important to the sense of continuity and ontological security
o
Emancipation from situations of oppression i s the necessary means of expanding the scope of lifestyle option, but even those most unprivileged live in situations permeated by institutional components of modernity
86
The body and self-actualisation o
Bodily appearance
o
o
Central elements of the reflexive project of the self
Demeanour
Influenced by the pluralisation of milieu
Goffman
Sustains a link to a personal narrative
Neither appearance nor demeanour organised as given – “The body participates in a very direct way in the principle that the self has to be constructed”
o
100
Sensuality of the body
Body care – listening to the body
o
100
Reflexive confrontation of sensual influences and abstract systems
Regimes of the body
4
