Anthony Giddens: Modernity and Self-Identity

Introduction
Modernity Self and society Modern social life Doubt and reflexivity Globalisation and media Reflexive self-identity Transformation of intimacy Personal meaninglessness Changes our social life and our in-world experiences Mechanisms of self-identity are shaped and shape the institutions of modernity time and space reorganisation + expansion of disembedding mechanisms. radical doubt all knowledge open to revision. As with the self. Uncertainty, multiple choice, trust, risk Distant happenings with influence on local life. The significance of mediated experiences. Lifestyle-choices and biographical narratives. pure relationships exist for the mere value of the relationship. Trust and mutual disclosure and commitment. a fundamental psychic problem. Due to lack of moral resources? A life on ones own? Authenticity as a morally undersized process.

1. The Contours of High Modernity

The self in modernity The reflexive struggles of life, which shape our biographical narratives. MODERNITY: SOME GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS Dimensions Industrialisation Capitalism The rise of organisation Size, bureaucratic character, concentrated reflexive monitoring. Dynamic modern life 1. Separation of time and space, no longer connected through the situatedness of place 2. The disembedding of social institutions. the lifting out of social relations from local contexts and their re-articulation across indefinite tracts of time-space (18). Symbolic tokens: media of exchange Expert systems: modes of technical knowledge Depends on trust. 3. Modernitys intrinsic reflexivity. The regularised use of knowledge about circumstances of social life as a constitutive element in its organisation and transformation. THE LOCAL, THE GLOBAL AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF DAY-TO-DAY LIFE Globalisation inherent in the tendencies of modernity. Presence/absence; social events and relations at distance with local contextualities. The dialectic of local and global. THE MEDIATION OF EXPERIENCE Language Prime mediator of experiences, a time-machine so to speak. Elevates experiences beyond immediacy. Innis and McLuhan the social implications of media, especially in relation to modernity. Modernity is inseparable from its media. 1

Electronic media Basic feature of mediated experiences

high modernity. But should not be understood as a phase replacing pint. 1. Collage effect: the juxtapostioning of stories: the newspaper page and the television programme guide. 2. The intrusion of distant events into everyday consciousness. HIGH MODERNITY AND ITS EXISTENTIAL PARAMETERS Characterised by a widespread scepticism about providential reason + acknowledging the risk or science and technology. The abstract systems of modernity induce acceptance of risk. Ulrich Beck Risk society. Indefinite potentials for with attendant risks. as if and selecting between possible worlds. action WHY MODERNITY AND PERSONAL IDENTITY? The dialectic of local and > Transformations in self-identity and globalisation. global The reflexive self The self as a reflexive project.

2. The Self: Ontological Security and Existential Anxiety

ONTOLOGICAL SECURITY AND TRUST The things we take for Almost infinite range of possibilities open for the individual. Anxiety granted and existential issues are kept at bay taken for granted, tacit acceptance of the world and self. The chaos that threatens the ordinariness of everyday life. Whats creates our sense Our sense of ontological security. of faith and trust Basic trust: connected to the interpersonal organisation of time and space. Winnicot: the development of the infant and its reality. Habits and routines in defense of the threatening anxieties. Creativity the capability to act/think innovatively in relation to pre-established modes of activity, faith in the unknown future and the unpredictability of the world. ANXIETY AND SOCIAL ORGANISATION Wittgenstein The universally experienced world of external reality not directly reflected in the meaningful components of the conventions in terms of which actors organise their behaviour. To know the meaning of We come to know the reality of the world and of signs as a result of the words differences formed in daily practice not only in a structuralist sense, but as differences as met with in daily experience. Mediated experience Important to learn about the external reality, about what is absent from individual life. Anxiety vs. fear Fear is a response to a specific threat, has a definite object. Anxiety however, disregards the object. EXISTENTIAL QUESTION Basic parameters of human life answered by everyone who goes on in the contexts of social activity. Kierkegaard on anxiety Comes with human liberty, freedom derived from an ontological 2

1. to be

2. external world human life 3. the existence of other people

Language

4. Self-identity

I/me/you

The individuals biography BODY AND SELF The body Reality is grasped through day-to-day praxis the body is experienced as a practical mode of coping with external situations. Wittgenstein, Goffman, Wittgenstein raised themes on a philosophical level, Goffman and Garfinkel Garfinkel explored these on an empirical level. Expectations of control over bodily and facial expressions. Foucault: body and the body in relation to mechanisms of power. Disciplinary power in power circumstances of modernity. Giddens however, does not find Foucaults equation of body and agency sufficient. Bodily discipline is intrinsic to the component social agent transcultural, not specifically connected with modernity. Self-identity vs. Division between self-identity and the performances one put on in social performance contexts. False self when the discrepancy between performance and the individuals biographical narrative is too radical. Die Disembodiment unimplicated in bodily desire - allows the individual to witness the activities of her body with natural detachment. Seems close to depersonalisation disorders by Giddens description. An attempt to transcend dangers and be safe. 3

understanding of external reality and personal identity. Anxiety as the possibility of freedom. to have ontological awareness. The struggle of being against non-being. Pre-modern context: tradition as a fundament for ontological frameworks. We live in circumstances of existential contradiction. Heidegger: Dasein is a being who lives and dies, but also who is aware of the horizon of its own mortality. Thoroughly explored in early phenomenology. Husserl: interpersonal knowledge based on Cartesia rationalism. Inferences from our own feelings and experiences are the only way to be aware of other peoples feelings and experiences. The transcendental philosophy of the ego against the threats of solipsism. Wittgenstein: avoids the problem of transcendentalism and solipsism. Language is the means to access both self-consciousness and awareness of others. Discovering the other is of key importance in the initial development of self-awareness. Presumes reflexive awareness what the individual is conscious of, has to be routinely created and sustained in reflexive activities of the individual. a linguistic differentiation. An internal relation to language, not connecting the unsocialised part of the individual (the I) to the social self. Self-identity as the self as reflexively understood by the person in terms of her or his biography. keeping a particular narrative going. Integrate events of the external world in the story about the self.

MOTIVATION Giddens explores the self in relation to motivation, reason, shame, guilt, pride and the ideal self. Interesting, but not really relevant for me?

3. The Trajectory of the Self

SELF-IDENTITY, HISTORY, MODERNITY Individuality as a with the differentiation of the division of labour the separate individual modern concept a focus of attention (parallels discussions of the traditional self). Giddens however, prefers to break modern individuality into finer detail, and argues that individuality has in fact been valued in all cultures. Derived from Rainwaters portrayal of therapy. 1. The self as a reflexive for which the individual is responsible. Our reconstructive endeavours. project 2. The self as a trajectory The self appropriates the past by sifting through it in the light of what is of development from anticipated in the future. Creating a coherent self connects the various past to future phases of the lifespan. Narrating a biography. 3. Continuous and allConstant self-interrogations of what is happening pervasive reflexivity 4. The self-identity a narrative of the self is made explicit. Sustaining an integrated sense of presumes a narrative self. 5. Self-actualisation The primacy of personal time: zones of personal time with only remote implies the control of connections with external temporal orders. time 6. The reflexivity of the the body is part of an action system and not merely a passive object. self extends to the body 7. Self-actualisation: Multiplicity of opportunities for self-development. Potential ways of between opportunity and being and acting. The risk that things can get worse than were before. risk 8. Authenticity The moral thread of self-actualisation. Being true to oneself above all. 9. The Life course as a But these are not institutionalised or accompanied by formalised rites. series of passages 10. Internally referential development of self LIFESTYLES AND LIFE PLANS Fundamentally about beyond mere consumerism. Implies choice within a plurality of possible constructing lifestyles options. Clearly, all choices are not open to everyone. A lifestyle involves a cluster of habits and orientations. Plurality of choices <-1. living in post-traditional order 2. the pluralisation of life-worlds 3. the existential impact of the contextual nature of warranted beliefs under conditions of modernity 4. the prevalence of mediated experiences. Meyrowitz mediumtheoretical analyses.

Strategic life-planning

the substantial content of the reflexively organised trajectory of the self. Life plan calendars. Presupposes organising time: preparing for the future interpreting the past. Clearly lifestyle choices are not the same for everyone. But the institutional components of modernity are still a part of everyones lives. Transformation of The modern life conception of friends. Plurality of choice partners are intimacy chosen from a diversity of possibilities. The pure relationship when ties are more or less freely chosen. THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF THE PURE RELATIONSHIP The ideal typical elements of pure relationships 1. Free-floating not anchored in external conditions of social or economic life. Both for relationships marriages and for friendship relationships. They are kept alive for the sake of the social reward/emotional satisfaction they bring to life. 2. Pure relationships are sought for what the relationship can bring to the partners. 3. Reflexive organised in an open fashion, on a continuous basis. Connects closely to the reflexive self. 4. Commitment replaces the external anchors of relationships in pre-modern situations. A decision to be committed. Pure relationships can only exists with reciprocity. 5. Intimacy the heart of modern forms of friendships and sexual relationships. The expectation of intimacy provides the closest links between the reflexive project of the self and the pure relationship. Requires commitment to the relationship. 6. Trust Mutual trust. Closely related to intimacy. An individual must be trusting and trustworthy. Authenticity. Communication 7. Self-identity negotiated through linked processes of self-exploration and the development of intimacy with the other. Help create shared histories. Dyadic pure relationships, but people are involved in several forms of interconnected relationships, forming milieux of intimacy. Body becomes socialised and drawn into the reflexive organisation of social life. THE BODY AND SELF-ACTUALISATION More than the physical an action system, mode of praxis. Its immersion in the interactions of entity day-to-day life is an essential part of sustaining a coherent sense of selfidentity. Aspects Appearance Demeanour Sensuality Regimes to which bodies are subject. Demeanour Closely connected to Goffmans discussion of performance. Dependent on context maintaining appropriate behaviour. Has to be integrated into the narrative of the person.