Modernity and Self Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age

Mapping by : Vandana Choradia

Map of Anthony Giddens’ essay- Modernity and Self Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age

1. Rethinking nature of modernity in 21^st Century in line with society

• “Nature of modernity must go hand in hand with a reworking of basic premises of sociological analysis.
  

II. Modernity affecting self and social life

• Modernity must be understood at an institutional level
• Self and social life constantly interact

IV. Modern Social life organized by Time and Space

• Institutional reflexivity
• Expansion of disembedding mechanisms
• Transform content and nature of everyday life

V. Modernity as post traditional order; principle of radical doubt

• Insists Knowledge should have hypotheses
• Claims that are true
• Openness to revision

VI. Modernity as a risk culture

• Reflexive organization of knowledge environments
• Risk assessment- precision, quantification
• Although, by its nature is imperfect

VII. Riskiness of certain areas in late modern world

• High consequence risks
• Apocalyptic- term High Modernity

VIII. Influences of media, systems on self identity and social relations

• Systems become autonomous
• The activities of electronic media is devoid of hyper reality in Baudrillard’s sense

IX. Reflexively organized self-identity

• Significance of notion of lifestyle and choices- structuring identity
• Life planning
• Tradition losing its hold, daily life- dialectical interplay between local and global, paralleled to people negotiating lifestyle choices
• Capitalistic production and distribution- core components of modernity’s institutions

X. What is lifestyle?

• Emancipation, access to forms of self-actualization, decisions taken and courses of action followed under conditions of severe material constraint
• Interconnects with life-planning
• Misunderstandings of ‘lifestyle’- only pursuits of prosperous/ rich groups and classes

XI. Transformation of Intimacy

• Interaction between local and global
• Pure relationship--- trust, reflexively controlled over long term

XII. Search for intimacy

• Integral to pure relationship
• Mistake- view contemporary search for intimacy as a negative reaction to the impersonal social universe

XIII. Reskilling

• Reacquisition of knowledge and skills
• Situationally variable
• Contrasts… it is partial, revisable in nature of expert’s knowledge
• Validates the need for Reskilling- Distrust, scepticism, rejection and withdrawal affects the linking of individual activities and expert systems

XIV. Interaction between self- reflexivity and abstract systems affect psychic processes and bodily development.

• Body- phenomenon of choices
• Do not affect only individual
• Narcissistic cultivation- control the body

XV. Sequestration of experience

• Influenced by science, technology and expertise
• Reframe issues of nature, scientific idea that excludes morality- through institutional account, internal referentiality
• People have direct contact with incidents and relate them to issues of morality

XVI. Shame by institutional repression

• Situation- Mentions Freud in reference to guilt (killing the father- Oedipus/ Electra complex)
• Institutional repression- shame over feeling of guilt
• Brought out through mechanisms of change

XVII. Personal Meaninglessness and existential questioning

• Life has nothing worthwhile
• Phenomenon- repression
• Authenticity- casing self- actualization

XVIII. Counter reaction to Existential questions- Life Politics

• Repression is incomplete
• Lifestyle choices- raise moral issues
• Emancipatory Politics

XIX. Emancipatory politics influencing existential issues

• Modernity excludes them
• Emergence of life-political programme

Giddens, Anthony. “Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age.” Art

in Modern Culture: An Anthology of Critical Texts. Eds. Franscina, Francis and Jonathan Harris. London/New York: Phaidon, 1992. Print

Pinto, Anil. Class lecture. On Modernity and Self Identity.Christ University. Bangalore, India. 4 August 2010. Lecture.