EDD 5229

1
EDD 5229 Liberal Studies in Knowledge Society
Lecture 6 Understanding the Curriculum
Content of Liberal Studies II Self and identity
in post-traditional and individualized society
2
Understanding the Structure of the Areas of
Study Self and Personal Development

• The formal structure outlined by the CCD and
  HKEAA
• Module 1 Personal development and interpersonal
  relationship
• Theme1 Understanding oneself
• Theme2 Interpersonal relationship
• The organic theoretical structure
• Self and identity as narrative and interactive
  processes A theory of self development
• Social Identity and the process of
  individualization
• Identity crisis in modern and reflexive society

3
Self and Identity as Narrative Interactive
Processes A Theory of Self Development

• Two paradigms of self and identity formations
• Essentialism
• Constructionism
• Interactionists conception of self-interaction
  process
• Symbolic interactionist saw the self as a
  process and not a structure. (Blumer p.62)
• The process of a self provides the human being
  with a mechanism of self-interaction. Such
  self-interaction takes the form of making
  indications to himself and meeting these
  indications by making further indications. The
  human being can designate things to himself his
  wants, his pains, his goals, object around him,
  the presence of others, their actions, their
  expected actions, or whatnot. (Blumer, p. 62)

4
Self and Identity as Narrative Interactive
Processes A Theory of Self Development

• Anthony Giddens conception of self-identity
• Giddens defines self as reflexively understood
  by the person in terms of her or his biography.
  (Giddens 1991, p. 53)
• Identity, according to Giddens, indicates a
  persons sense of continuity across time and
  space. (ibid)

5
Self and Identity as Narrative Interactive
Processes A Theory of Self Development

• Anthony Giddens conception of self-identity
• Self-identity, therefore, can be defined as a
  sense of continuity as interpreted reflexively
  by the agent. (ibid) More specifically, a person
  with a reasonably stable sense of self-identity
  is, therefore, the one with the capacity to keep
  a particular narrative going. The individuals
  biography, if she is to maintain regular
  interaction with others in the day-to-day world,
  cannot be wholly fictive. It must continually
  integrate events which occur in the external
  world, and sort them out into ongoing story
  about the self. (Giddens, 1991, p. 54) In short,
  self-identity can be discerned as coherent and
  continuous narrative one imputed to oneself.

6
Self and Identity as Narrative Interactive
Processes A Theory of Self Development

• Anthony Giddens conception of self-identity
• Constituents of self-identity A stable
  self-identity, i.e. coherent and continuous self
  narrative, would compose the following attributes
• Ontological security A stable sense of
  self-identity presupposes the elements of
  ontological security - an acceptance of the
  things and of others. (ibid) The sense of
  ontological security implies that a person has to
  extend beyond self-reflexion and connects to her
  or his environments, both physical and social. In
  turn, it will generate both sense of trust and
  bondage with the physical and social
  environments.

7
Self and Identity as Narrative Interactive
Processes A Theory of Self Development

• Anthony Giddens conception of self-identity
• Constituents of self-identity
• Trust Trust can be construed as the confidences
  and expectations that a person invested on
  particular relationships with social and physical
  environments. It is generally evolved from the
  positive feedbacks obtained by the person in the
  particular relationships.
• Bondage As the positive feedback generated from
  a relationship with a human aggregate
  accumulated, the person involved will develop
  strong sense of belonging to it and in turn
  constitute a social bondage. As a result, a
  social identity develops.

8
Self and Identity as Narrative Interactive
Processes A Theory of Self Development

• Richard Jenkins theory of identification
• The meaning of identity
• According to Oxford English Dictionary, the Latin
  root of the word identity is identitas, which is
  from idem, meaning the same. It signifies two
  basic meanings. The first is a concept of
  absolute sameness this is identical to that. The
  second is a concept of distinctiveness which
  presumes consistency or continuity over time.
  (Jenkins, 1996, p.3)
• Hence, the notion of identity implies both the
  notion of similarity and difference. More
  specifically, in dealing with ones identity, one
  must simultaneously handling the distinctiveness
  of oneself and the similarity one shares with
  members of the collectivity one identified with.

9
Self and Identity as Narrative Interactive
Processes A Theory of Self Development

• Richard Jenkins theory of identification
• The meaning of identity
• Accordingly, Richard Jenkins suggests that
  individual and collective identities are analogue
  because they come into being within
  interaction, routinely entangled with each
  other, and are produced and reproduced
  instantaneously in the same process of
  identification. (Jenkins, 2004, p. 15-16)

10
Self and Identity as Narrative Interactive
Processes A Theory of Self Development

• The process of identification
• By identification, it refers to the process
  through which the selfhood of an individual is
  constituted and at the same time the sameness
  that she shared with members of the collectives
  to which one belongs is constructed.
• The process of identification is in essence a
  social process. It is through the interactions
  with other fellow human being that both the
  individual identity, i.e. selfhood, and
  collective identities emerge.

11
Self and Identity as Narrative Interactive
Processes A Theory of Self Development

• The process of identification
• The concept of looking-glass-self Charles
  Cooley coined the concept in 1962 to indicate
  that the selfhood of an individual is defined and
  redefined through interacting with others and
  taking references and accounts of how others
  perceive her. It is the perceptions of the
  significant others and the referent others,
  which is of particular importance to the
  constitution of ones selfhood.

12
Self and Identity as Narrative Interactive
Processes A Theory of Self Development

• The process of identification
• Labelling theory The theory was first generated
  in deviance studies. It indicates the process in
  which authoritative labels imposed on individual
  in institutional setting may be internalized by
  the label-recipients as part of their identity.
• Concepts of institutional identification and
  categorization The concepts were first derived
  in ethnic studies, they signifies the process of
  asserting, defending, imposing and resisting of
  identities and categorizations between ethnic
  groups.

13
Self and Identity as Narrative Interactive
Processes A Theory of Self Development

• The concept of social identity Richard Jenkins
  suggests that within the theory of identification
  both individual and collective identities are
  part of the notion of social identity. It refers
  to the meanings one attributes to oneself whether
  in the form of individually distinctive or
  collectively shared meanings. Moreover, these
  meanings are generated and consolidated in social
  interactions undertaken by the individuals with
  others.

14
Social Identity in the Process of
Individualization

• The conception of Individualization of modern
  society
• Individualization consists of transforming
  human identity from a given into a task and
  changing the actors with the responsibility for
  performing that task and for the consequences
  (also the side-effects) of their performance.
  .Human being are no more born into their
  identities. Needing to become what one is the
  feature of modern living - and of this living
  alone. Modernity replaces the heteronomic
  determination of social standing with compulsive
  and obligatory self-determination. (Bauman,
  2000, p. 32)

15
Social Identity in the Process of
Individualization

• The conception of Individualization of modern
  society
• individualization means, first, the
  disembedding and, second, the re-embedding of
  industrial society ways of life by new ones, in
  which the individuals must produce, stage and
  cobble together their biographies themselves.
  Thus the name individualization, dsiembedding
  and re-embedding do not occur by chance, nor
  individually, nor voluntarily, nor through
  diverse types of historical conditions, but
  rather all at once and under the general
  conditions of the welfare in developed industrial
  labour society, as they have developed since the
  1960s in many Western industrial countries.
  (Beck, 1994, p.13)

16
Social Identity in the Process of
Individualization

• The conception of Individualization of modern
  society
• Institutionalized beds - identity bases - for
  the re-embedment of modern individuals
• Beds in capital market, e.g. occupations,
  professions, social-class positions, etc.
• Beds in institution of marriage and family,
  husband, wife, father, mother, etc.
• Beds in modern political arenas, e.g. citizens,
  members of new social movements, such as
  environmentalists, feminist, anti-gloabizationists
  , etc.

17
Social Identity in the Process of
Individualization

• Arthur Franks equilateral triangle of self
  (Figure 1)
• Institutional dimension of self narrative
• Discursive dimension of self narrative
• Corporeal dimension

18
(No Transcript)
19
Social Identity Crisis in Modern and Reflexive
Societies

• Social identity crisis in the process of
  Individualization
• What distinguished the individualization of
  yore from the form it has taken in risk society
  . No beds are furnished for re-embedding,
  and such beds as might be postulated and pursued
  prove fragile and often vanish before the work of
  em-rebeddment is complete. There are rather
  musical chairs of various size and style as
  well as of changing numbers and positions, which
  prompt men and women to be constantly on the move
  and promise no fulfilment, no rest and no
  satisfaction of arriving, of researching the
  final destination, where one can disarm, relax
  and stop worrying. (Bauman, 2000, p. 33-34)

20
Social Identity Crisis in Modern and Reflexive
Societies

• Social identity crisis in the process of
  Individualization
• Social identity crisis can therefore be conceived
  as a discontinuity between the stages of
  dis-embedment and re-embedment in the
  individualization process
• Fragmentation of institutional-beds and the
  flexiblization of modern identity Under the
  network logic and the global-information paradigm
• National-local identity replaced by global-mobile
  identity
• Affect-familial identity replaced by
  flexible-familial identity
• Permanent vocationalism and unionism replaced by
  flexible, self-programmed workers

21
Social Identity Crisis in Modern and Reflexive
Societies

• Social identity crisis in the process of
  Individualization
• The permeation of pure relation growth
• By pure relationship, according to Giddens, it is
  social relationship build purely on the
  relationships itself. It differs from traditional
  relationships which are based on institutional
  bondages, such as parent-child relationships, or
  based on institutional restraints, such as
  marriage and business contracts. Instead, pure
  relationship is not anchored in external
  conditions of social or economic life - it is
  free-floating. .The pure relationship is sought
  only for what the relationship can bring to the
  partners involved. (It) is reflexively
  organized, in open fashion, and on a continuous
  basis (Giddens, 1991, p. 89-91)

22
Interpersonal Relationship

• Pure relation
• Ethical relation
• Institutional relation
• Regulative institutional relation
• Normative institutional relation
• Biological/genetic relation

23
Social Identity Crisis in Modern and Reflexive
Societies

• Social identity crisis in the process of
  Individualization
• The permeation of pure relation growth
• Pure relationships are by definition double
  edged.
• They provide reflexive or even emancipatory
  chances for reconstituting traditional social
  relationship. They offer opportunity for the
  development of trust based on voluntary
  commitments and an intensified intimacy. (p.
  186)
• Yet pure relationship create enormous burdens
  for the integrity of the self. In so far as a
  relationship lacks external referents, it is
  morally mobilized only thorough authenticity.
  Shorn of external moral criteria, the pure
  relationship is vulnerable as a source of
  security at fateful moments and at other major
  life transitions. (p. 186-7)

24
Social Identity Crisis in Modern and Reflexive
Societies

• Social identity crisis in the process of
  Individualization
• As a result, the story of the self can no longer
  be told in a continuous and coherent manner. In
  other words, the self-identity experiences sense
  of discontinuity and fragementation, i.e.
  ontological insecurity and extistential anxiety
  in Giddens terms.

25
Social Identity Crisis in Modern and Reflexive
Societies

• Zygmunt Baumans cultural identity of
  postmodernity
• The pilgrim as modern self Pilgrimage of
  entrepreneurs, tenured workers, citizens, civil
  soldiers, husband and wife, etc.
• Life strategy of postmodern self
• Strollers It signifies the life strategy and
  state of mind of strolling in shopping malls,
  finding oneself among strangers and being a
  stranger to them, taking in those strangers as
  surfaces. .Strolling means rehearsing human
  reality as a series of episodes, that is as
  events without past and without consequences. It
  also means rehearsing meeting as mis-meeting, as
  encounters without impacts. The stroller had all
  the pleasures of modern life without torments
  attached. (Bauman, 1996, p. 26-27)

26
Social Identity Crisis in Modern and Reflexive
Societies

• Zygmunt Baumans cultural identity of
  postmodernity
• Life strategy of postmodern self
• Vagabond It represents the life strategy and
  attitude of wondering aimlessly and without
  destination. It also signifies life strategy of
  unwilling to settle down, to be the native and
  rooted in the soil. It post the stance of
  strangers and being out of place to every place
  and everyone.
• Tourist It represents another life strategy of
  movers, who move on purpose. The purposes that
  tourists have in mind are fun, joy, excitement
  and most of all careless. One may say that what
  tourist buys, what he pays for, what he demands
  to be delivered is precisely the right not to
  be bothered, freedom from any but aesthetic
  spacing. (Bauman, 1996, p. 31)

27
Social Identity Crisis in Modern and Reflexive
Societies

• Zygmunt Baumans cultural identity of
  postmodernity
• Life strategy of postmodern self
• Player The players world is the world of
  risks, of intuition, of precaution-taking. Time
  in the world-as-play divides into a succession of
  games. (p. 31) In other words, players world is
  made up of fragments and episodes of calculated
  risk. Yet more importantly, player must make
  sure that no game leaves lasting consequences,
  the player must remember (and so must his/her
  partners and adversaruies), that this is but a
  game. The game allows no room for pity,
  compassion, commiseration or cooperation. (p.32)

28
Social Identity Crisis in Modern and Reflexive
Societies

• Zygmunt Baumans cultural identity of
  postmodernity
• The rise of networked individualism and
  cyber-balkanization
• Networked individualism is a social pattern,
  not a collection of isolated individuals. Rather,
  individuals build their networks, on-line and
  off-line, on the basis of their interests,
  values, affinities, and projects. (Castells,
  2001, p. 131)

29
Social Identity Crisis in Modern and Reflexive
Societies

• Zygmunt Baumans cultural identity of
  postmodernity
• The rise of networked individualism and
  cyber-balkanization
• Networked individualism is a social pattern,
  not a collection of isolated individuals. Rather,
  individuals build their networks, on-line and
  off-line, on the basis of their interests,
  values, affinities, and projects. (Castells,
  2001, p. 131)

30
Lecture 6 Understanding the Curriculum Content of
Liberal Studies I Self and identity in
post-traditional and individualized
society End