Conversations About Reflexivity ‘Reflexivity’ is defined as the regular exercise of the mental ability, shared by all normal people, to consider themselves in relation to their (social) contexts and vice versa. Hence it is crucial in mediating between what actors themselves are most concerned to achieve in society and the social constraints and enablements that they confront as they try to realize their concerns. Their reflexive ‘internal conversations’ are the means through which they deliberate about what course of action to take. Focusing fully on this phenomenon, this book discusses three main questions associated with this subject in detail. 1 What are the social conditions leading people to practice reflexivity in dif- ferent ways? 2 What part do our internal reflexive deliberations play in designing the courses of action we take: subordinate to habitual action or not? 3 If ‘reflexivity’ is not a homogeneous practice for all people at all times, does it show significant variations over history? In addressing these questions, contributors engage critically with the most relevant studies, by thinkers such as G. H. Mead, C. S. Peirce, J. Habermas, N. Luhmann, U. Beck, A. Giddens and P. Bourdieu. Most contributors are leading Pragmatists or Critical Realists, associated with the ‘Reflexivity Forum’: an informal, interna- tional and inter-disciplinary group. This combination of reference to influential writers of the past and the best of modern theory has produced a fascinating book that is essential reading for all students with a serious interest in social theory and two of its main problems – how structure and agency are linked and what is the relationship between human subjectivity and the objective social context. Margaret S. Archer is Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick. She has published 25 books in the area of Social Theory, with particular emphasis on social ontology, emergent properties and the problem of linking structure and agency. Ontological Explorations Other titles in this series: From One ‘Empire’ to the Next Radha D’Souza Science for Humanism The recovery of human agency Charles R. Varela Philosophical Problems of Sustainability Taking sustainability forward with a critical realist approach Jenneth Parker Dialectic and Difference Dialectical critical realism and the grounds of justice Alan Norrie Conversations About Reflexivity Edited by Margaret S. Archer First published 2010 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk. © 2010 Margaret S. Archer for selection and editorial material; individual chapters, the contributors All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data A catalog record has been requested for this book ISBN 0-203-86755-6 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10: 0- 415- 55852-2 (hbk) ISBN10: 0- 203- 86755-6 (ebk) ISBN13: 978- 0- 415- 55852- 5 (hbk) ISBN13: 978- 0- 203- 86755- 6 (ebk) Contents List of illustrations vii List of contributors ix 1 Introduction: The reflexive re-t urn 1 MARGARET S. ARCHER PART I Reflexivity and pragmatism 15 2 Inner speech and agency 17 NORBERT WILEY 3 Cartesian privacy and Peircean interiority 39 VINCENT COLAPIETRO 4 Pragmatist and hermeneutic reflections on the internal conversations that we are 55 FRÉDÉRIC VANDENBERGHE PART II Reflexivity and realism 75 5 Human reflexivity in social realism: beyond the modern debate 77 ANDREA M. MACCARINI AND RICCARDO PRANDINI 6 Reflexivity and the habitus 108 ANDREW SAYER 7 Can reflexivity and habitus work in tandem? 123 MARGARET S. ARCHER vi Contents 8 Reflexivity after modernity: from the viewpoint of relational sociology 144 PIERPAOLO DONATI PART III Modes of reflexivity 165 9 The agency of the weak: ethos, reflexivity and life strategies of Polish workers after the end of state socialism 167 ADAM MROZOWICKI 10 Emotion, and the silenced and short- circuited self 187 HELENA FLAM 11 Self talk and self reflection: a view from the US 206 DOUGLAS V. PORPORA AND WESLEY SHUMAR PART IV Reflexivity in production and consumption 221 12 ‘Reflexive consumers’: a relational approach to consumption as a social practice 223 PABLO GARCIA-RUIZ AND CARLOS RODRIGUEZ- LLUESMA 13 Organizational use of information and communication technology and its impact on reflexivity 243 ALISTAIR MUTCH Index 259 Illustrations Figures 2.1 Peirce- Mead dialogical self 19 7.1 A schema of Elder- Vass’s argument 131 8.1 The basic schema for the social role of reflexivity in social change 146 8.2 The basic schema extended according to the relational theory of society 148 8.3 The place of reflexivity in the morphogenetic cycle 155 8.4 The temporal sequence of emergence of a social structure through personal, social and system reflexivity (better: system reflectivity) 156 9.1 The typology of life strategies: the modes of reflexivity and the modes of structuring 174 10.1 The short- circuited self 196 11.1 Scale conceptualization 211 Tables 7.1 The three order s of natural reality and associated forms of knowledge 132 8.1 Forms of societal differentiation and their related types of reflexivity, principles of identity, and associated empirical spheres in society 150 11.1 Absolute and comparative reflexive style 213 11.2 Gender and reflexive style 214 11.3 Comparative reflexive style and meta- reflexivity 216 Contributors Margaret S. Archer received her Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and has been Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick, UK, since 1979. She is the past editor of Current Sociology and past president of the International Sociological Association. Her previous books include Culture and Agency (1988), Realist Social Theory (1995), Being Human (2000), Structure, Agency and the Internal Conversation (2003) and Making Our Way Through the World (2007). Pierpaolo Donati is Professor of Sociology, University of Bologna, Italy. He is the past president of the Italian Sociological Association; Director of the Centre for Social Policy Studies and Social Health, University of Bologna, Director of the ‘National Observatory on the Family’ and editor of the journal, Sociologia e Politiche Sociali. His main recent publications include Teoria Relazionale della Società (1992), La cittadinanza societaria (2000), La cultura civile in Italia: fra stato, mercato e privato sociale (2002), Il capitale sociale degli italiani. Le radici familiari, comunitarie e associative del civismo (2008), and Teoria Relazionale della Società (2009). Vincent Colapietro is Liberal Arts Research Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Pennsylvania State University. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Marquette University, Wisconsin, (while his M.A. thesis was on Dewey, his dissertation was on Peirce). His books include Peirce’s Approach to the Self (1989) and Fateful Shapes of Human Freedom (2003). He has written especially on the central figures in American pragmatism and themes related to their unique contribution to philosophical inquiry (meaning, agency, practice, and art). Helena Flam received her Fil.Kand. in Sweden and her Ph.D. at Columbia University. She has been Professor of Sociology in Leipzig, Germany, since 1993. Her publications in the sociology of emotions include The Emotional Man and the Problem of Collective Action (2000), Soziologie der Emotionen (2002) and Emotions and Social Movements (2005). She is a co-founder of the Emotions Network of the European Sociological Association.
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