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Notes from chapters 1 and 2 in Anthony Giddens' Modernity and self-identity: self and society in the late modern age. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991.
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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 3o means of forming of self in high modernityo accumulation of practical knowledge
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 3
o trust means of achieving an early ontological sense of security ‘leap into faith’
o risk a crucial concept of organization of the social world
o 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 endeavour.” 5
“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
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, reproductive 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 cycle` 14
A biography is not possessed, but actively constructed and lived 14 Reflexively organized around the information of possible ways of life
o 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 commitment – trust
Sequestration of experience 8o contact with the natural sphere provided through media and expert knowledge
Life politics 9 A life in a constant crisis
o 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
Means of reflexively monitored collective action - policies and plans the rise of organisation dynamism, discontinuousness
o 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 spaceo Expansion of disembedding (differentiated) mechanisms 18
2
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 on the others 22
o 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 valid” 28
Fate risko Modernity – risk society (Beck), reflexively mobilised and
responsibleo Risk assessment and evaluation are central
mediation of experienceo modernity is inseparable from its own media 24o media and the collage effecto modernity dissociates, fragments postmodernity
globalizing tendencies and the selfo universalist nature, expansiveo the dialectic of local and globalo 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 33
Lifestyles and life planso Therapyo Self-actualization
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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 practices fulfil utilitarian needs, but because they give material form to a particular narrative of self-identity.” 81
Routines followed reflexively open to change Work, consumption Multiplicity of choices, but not all open to everyone 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 is 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-actualisationo Bodily appearance
Central elements of the reflexive project of the self 100o Demeanour
Influenced by the pluralisation of milieu Goffman Sustains a link to a personal narrative
o 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” 100
o Sensuality of the body Body care – listening to the body
Reflexive confrontation of sensual influences and abstract systemso Regimes of the body
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