· 2020· Book chapter
Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age
- 13,492citations
- 2020year
Short summary
In late modernity, the self is a "reflexive project" where individuals actively construct their identity through lifestyle choices, rather than inheriting it from tradition.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- The self is a "reflexive project" in late modernity.
- Lifestyle choices are central to identity construction, replacing traditional inheritance.
- Life planning and lifestyle choices shape institutional settings.
- The construction of self-identity in this era is inherently fragile.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
The reflexivity of modernity extends into core of the self. Put in another way, in the context of a post-traditional order, the self becomes a reflexive project. One concerns the primacy of lifestyle — and its inevitability for the individual agent. Lifestyle is not a term which has much applicability to traditional cultures, because it implies choice within plurality of possible options, and is 'adopted' rather than 'handed down'. Lifestyle choices and life planning are not just 'in', or constituent of, the day-to-day life of social agents, but form institutional settings which help to shape their actions. Of course, for all individuals and groups, life chances condition lifestyle choices. Life planning is a specific example of a more general phenomenon that author shall discuss in some detail in subsequent chapter as the 'colonisation of the future'. In the reflexive project of the self, the narrative of self-identity is inherently fragile. Moreover, the pure relationship contains internal tensions and even contradictions.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source., 2020 · DOI ↗
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Field: Sociology and Political Science
Sociology and Political ScienceSocial Sciences