DOCSLIB.ORG

Successes and Failures of Democratic Systems in Combatting Social and Cultural Exclusion Douglas V

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Successes and Failures of Democratic Systems in Combatting Social and Cultural Exclusion Douglas V Successes and Failures of Democratic Systems in Combatting Social and Cultural Exclusion Douglas V. Porpora In a 2013 article on world millennial goal performance, The Economist magazine illustrates what Professor Pierpaolo Donati (2015a; 2015b; 2015c) calls the “lib/lab” compromise in social policy. By millennial goals, I mean the eight international Millennium Development Goals formulated during the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000 and subsequently enshrined in the United Nations Millennium Declaration. These goals were extremely ambitious, including the total eradication worldwide of poverty by 2015 and the achievement of universal primary education. Although by 2015 the world had not achieved these millennial goals, progress was at least impressive. World poverty has since been halved, and primary enrollment in education has now reached 91% (UN 2015). The Economist’s response to such success was to conclude that “the world now knows how to reduce poverty” (Economist 2013). The Economist admits that poverty was reduced in part by “a lot of targeted policies – basic social safety nets and cash-transfer schemes, such as Brazil’s Bolsa Familia” (Economist 2013). Such policies are what Donati means by a lab or labor approach to social problems. The lab or labor approach employs laws; bureaucratized services; and income transfers. This lab or labor approach leaves economic conservatives uneasy, and The Economist, a conservative outlet, is no exception. It is rather a lib or liberal or neo-liberal approach that the conservatives favor. Such lib approach puts its faith in the economic market, the more unfettered the better. Thus, predictably, according to The Economist, “Most of the credit” for eradicating poverty “must go to capitalism and free trade, for they enable economies to grow – and it was growth, principally, that has eased destitution” (Economist 2013). Donati sees limitations to both the lib and lab approaches and to the limited compromise between them. In fact, he argues that the limited alternation between lib/lab tendencies is part of what hampers efforts to deal adequately with social exclusion. Thus, along with Professor Margaret Archer (see Donati and Archer 2015), Donati calls instead for more input from the third, civil sector between market and government. Although I am myself more partial to the labor side of things, I am going to draw on Donati’s lib/lab understanding as I pursue my task in this paper. That task, as indicated by my title, is to describe the successes and failures of democracies in address to social and cultural exclusion. I must admit I had to play a bit of catch-up to present this paper. I come from the United States, which was enclosed by walls even before Donald Trump. Thus, while Europe and, indeed, the rest of the world have been speaking for decades now of exclusion, outside of public health, that vocabulary is fairly unknown in the U.S. We follow more what the World Health Organization (WHO) literature review on exclusion calls the rights approach (see Matheison et al. 2008), which emphasizes rights and privileges, or disparities and inequalities. In relation to the poor specifically, we tend to speak not of exclusion but of insecurity as in food insecurity. Coming from a rights approach, we in the U.S. do not connect exclusion specifically with the poor. On the contrary, when we in the U.S. think specifically of exclusion, we tend to think more of the non-poor. We have, for example, been more preoccupied with the so-called glass ceiling on women’s advancement. In contrast with Germany and the United Kingdom, the U.S. has yet to elect a female head of state, and it is apparent from our last presidential election that there remains in the U.S. considerable uneasiness even among women with a woman in that executive position. We likewise have been preoccupied with the exclusion of gays and lesbians from the institution of marriage, which is a major way in which people participate in the social order. None of which is to say that the U.S. has no problems with what can be called “the most excluded”. The U.S. does have such problems. In fact, in comparison with many other democracies, American problems are actually worse. Because how we talk about our problems is in fact part of our problem, I will begin by briefly rehearsing the history of this term exclusion and the multidimensional understanding of poverty it implies. I will follow that with a broad look at how democracies of the southern hemisphere achieved progress in the Millennium Development Goals and the difficulties facing them going further. - 1 - Then I will look more closely at the progress combatting social and cultural exclusion made by the nations of the European Union since their joint commitment toward that end at the Lisbon Summit of March 2000. In that analysis, I will use the U.S. as a benchmark, not because I share my compatriot’s view of the U.S. as the world’s greatest democracy but because on the contrary, some of the problems show up starker in the U.S. and because accordingly some of the EU’s successes show up better by that comparison. Finally, I will return to Donati’s lib/lab framework. From that perspective, I will comment on the call to more action on the part of the civil society that constitutes the third sector. Exclusion as a Concept To address the problem of exclusion effectively, we must understand it correctly and measure it properly. Thus, how we talk about exclusion and what we mean by it is fundamental to the task. Current talk of exclusion traces back to 1974 and the French Secretary of State for Social Action, René Lenoir. Lenoir spoke of the “most excluded”, under which category he included the poor; the mentally and physically disabled; the suicidal and drug addicted; and those otherwise marginalized. It was a time when France was preoccupied with the problem of full employment, and Lenoir’s classification evoked the concern of French sociologist Emile Durkheim for social integration (Matheison et al. 2008). Exclusion was quickly picked up throughout Europe, somewhat displacing references to poverty. From there, the framework of exclusion was adopted by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and subsequently by the World Bank, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). What accounts for the rapid appeal of exclusion as a socio-political category? A variety of explanations have been offered, some critical of the term (Beall 2002; Gore and Figueiredo 1997; Veit-Wilson 1998) and some appreciative (e.g., Estivill 2003). The critics charge that exclusion is a neo-liberal attempt to depoliticize poverty. The more appreciative commentators suggest that exclusion is less stigmatizing and less provocative than references to poverty and also that exclusion opens up analysis to a more causal orientation that is multidimensional in nature. Exclusion on this view is not just economic but social and cultural as well. Silver (1994) perhaps has the right of it in observing that part of exclusion’s appeal is that it is polysemic, taking on different meanings for different users, especially across the lib/lab spectrum. On the liberal or neo- liberal side, going back to Lenoir’s original Durkheimian understanding, there is what Silver calls the Solidarity paradigm. This paradigm views exclusion as a “breakdown of a social bond between the individual and society that is cultural and moral rather than economic” (Mathieson et al. 2008: 17). Also called the moral underclass discourse by Levitas (2005), this perspective ends up laying the blame for exclusion either on the individual excluded agents themselves, who lack the moral gumption to do what is necessary to participate appropriately, or on their culture, which fails to pass on participatory norms to succeeding generations. The latter view, which American sociologists call Culture of Poverty Theory, is very prevalent in the United States but has also been picked up in Europe, as by the Tories in the U.K. (Levitas 2005). On the other side of the divide, exclusion can fit into a labor framework via what Levitas (2005) calls the redistributionist discourse. This perspective counterpoises exclusion to full citizenship, understanding exclusion either as a discriminatory denial of rights or, as Sen (2000) puts it, an unintended consequence of social dynamics or policies. To fully distinguish the lib/lab understandings here, it is helpful to draw on Professor Margaret Archer’s (2013) acronym SAC – which stands for structure, agency, and culture. In much contemporary sociology, these three categories have collapsed into each other, with structure being swallowed by culture, and culture, reinterpreted as practice, being swallowed up thereby into agency (Porpora 2015). The result is the loss of crucial distinctions. Against this current, Archer has defended a pair of analytical dualisms, distinguishing agency first from structure and then from culture. On Archer’s (1996) view, culture refers to intelligibilia, or to what can be interpreted. It is that to which Max Weber applied the term Verstehen and which Anglophone philosophy distinguishes as requiring understanding rather than explanation. Included in this category are our intersubjective experiences, namely, shared values, beliefs, norms, and rules. Structure, on the other hand, refers not to what we necessarily experience but to the relations that organize our collective life – gender and class relations, for example, or the division of labor. In contrast with the intelligibilia that comprise culture, structural relations are more objective or material in that they often can exist even without anyone’s notice. Agency, as the actions of specific human actors, is always - 2 - culturally informed and social structurally positioned but is analytically distinct from both structural and cultural contexts.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Facing an Unequal World: Challenges for a Global Sociology1
    Facing an Unequal World 3 Facing an Unequal World: Challenges for a 1 Global Sociology Michael Burawoy, University of California, Berkeley, USA2 Yuan-Tseh Lee, former president of Academia Sinica and Nobel Prize Winner, opened the second conference of the Council of National Asso- ciations with a call to scientists the world-over to come together and con- front ever-deepening global problems. Some of the most serious chal- lenges facing mankind -- climate change, energy crisis, and disease – stem from processes that transcend national boundaries and social divi- sions, yet the tools to tackle them are still largely locked within national boundaries and controlled by powerful, vested interests. The problem, Dr. Lee insisted, is not so much globalization but its incompleteness. Devel- oping global communities along with global governance is necessary for tackling global problems. We can no longer retreat back to an insular lo- calism, so we must move forward to realize the potentials of a more com- plete and complex globalization. He posed the challenge to sociology: how did we respond? As sociologists we specialize in studying the downside of globaliza- tion, the obstacles to a globalization that will benefit humanity. We are experts in the ways inequality and domination present the deepest barriers to tackling the daunting challenges of our epoch. We postulate conditions for overcoming such barriers while criticizing false solutions that redis- tribute rather than diminish the ill-effects incomplete globalization. It is the presumption of this conference that for sociologists to address the exclusion and oppression underlying poverty and war, disease and envi- ronmental degradation on a global scale, our scientific community must itself first assume a global character ruled by dialogue and accountability We gathered together in Taipei, therefore, to examine our own discipline through the bifocal lens of domination and inequality – a risky but neces- sary project -- so as to create and embrace a global sociology that is equal to the global tasks we face.
    [Show full text]
  • The Morphogenetic Approach and Immanent Causality: a Spinozian Perspective*
    Received: 4 October 2017 Revised: 10 June 2018 Accepted: 18 June 2018 DOI: 10.1111/jtsb.12181 ORIGINAL ARTICLE The morphogenetic approach and immanent causality: A spinozian perspective* Karim Knio Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Erasmus Abstract University Rotterdam, The Netherlands The morphogenetic approach as powered by analytical Correspondence dualism offers an appealing account of the processes Karim Knio, Institute of Social Studies – – (ISS), Erasmus University Rotterdam, The whereby people through their reflexivities reflect Netherlands. back on structures and cultures during the double Email: [email protected] and triple morphogenesis of agency. However, in order to further specify an account of social change, this paper argues that it would be helpful to provide an account of what occurs in the other direction as well: from the direction of structures and cultures, between each other and towards people, also at the points of double and triple morphogenesis of agency. This article is therefore a theoretical piece that proposes a reading of the morphogenetic model imbued with an enlightened understanding of immanent causality, driven by the Spinozian doctrine of parallelism and operationalized by his understanding of the two expressive roles of ideas. KEYWORDS analytical dualism, dispositions (capabilities), immanent causality, role of ideas, structure/agency debate Margaret Archer's morphogenetic approach is currently one of the most eminent and highly esteemed accounts of structure and agency in the social sciences. By referring to the concept of *I would like to thank Professor Archer for commenting on an earlier draft of this article. I also would like to thank Aleksandra Piletic for her assistance in preparing this article.
    [Show full text]
  • Margaret S. Archer Editor Morphogenesis and the Crisis of Normativity Morphogenesis and the Crisis of Normativity
    Social Morphogenesis Margaret S. Archer Editor Morphogenesis and the Crisis of Normativity Morphogenesis and the Crisis of Normativity [email protected] Social Morphogenesis Series Editor: MARGARET S. ARCHER Centre for Social Ontology, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK Aims and scope: To focus upon ‘social morphogenesis’ as a general process of change is very different from examining its particular results over the last quarter of a century. This series ventures what the generative mechanisms are that produce such intense change and discusses how this differs from late modernity. Contributors examine if an intensification of morphogenesis (positive feedback that results in a change in social form) and a corresponding reduction in morphostasis (negative feedback that restores or reproduces the form of the social order) best captures the process involved. The series consists of 5 volumes derived from the Centre for Social Ontology’s annual workshops “From Modernity to Morphogenesis” at the University of Lausanne, headed by Margaret Archer. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11959 [email protected] Margaret S. Archer Editor Morphogenesis and the Crisis of Normativity 123 [email protected] Editor Margaret S. Archer Centre for Social Ontology University of Warwick Coventry, UK This volume IV follows the book “Social Morphogenesis”, edited by Margaret S. Archer, which was the first book in the series published in 2013 http://www.springer.com/social+ sciences/book/978-94-007-6127-8, the volume “Late Modernity”, edited by Margaret S. Archer, published in 2014 and the volume “Generative Mechanisms Transforming the Social Order”, edited by Margaret S.
    [Show full text]
  • Advancing a Morphogenetic Understanding of Organisational Behaviour
    ADVANCING A MORPHOGENETIC UNDERSTANDING OF ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR An Investigation into the Psychological Mechanisms and Organisational Behavioural Tendencies of Autonomous Reflexivity By Royston Francis Meriton Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds Leeds University Business School September 2016 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his/her own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. ©2016 “The University of Leeds” Royston Francis Meriton Acknowledgement “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery None but ourselves can free our mind…” Bob Marley (1945 – 1981) RIP To Thierry and Keisha Nicky and Mark thank you for your patience and confidence showed in me. I cannot express enough in words how much your guidance has been valued. Granny, you have been my rock, you may never know how much your influence runs deep in this work. I thank Professor Ann Cunliffe for her comments on an earlier draft and Dr Andy Brown for lending a listening ear. Without her confidence and understanding this work would not have been possible, a special mention goes to Professor Margaret Archer for her informal guidance, you are an inspiration to many. A special mention also goes to Maha, a friend I have shared many a thought with, you have the ability to inspire even without trying. All of this would have been but a fleeting illusion without Richard, thank you.
    [Show full text]
  • Mouzelis, Archer and the Concept of Social Structure
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Crossref SOCIOLOGY Vol. 32 No. 3 August 1998 509–522 CONCEPTUALISING CONSTRAINT: MOUZELIS, ARCHER AND THE CONCEPT OF SOCIAL STRUCTURE KIERAN HEALY Abstract This paper outlines and evaluates recent contributions by Nicos Mouzelis and Margaret Archer to the structure–agency debate. Mouzelis offers an internal reconstruction of Giddens’s structuration theory; Archer an external alternative. I show that, although representing an advance on Giddens’s position, Mouzelis’s account fails because he relies on the former’s definition of structure as comprising rules and resources. I then examine Archer’s solution to the problem. I argue that her definition of activity-dependence makes her account of the relationship between agents and structures unclear. I outline an alternative account in terms of super- venience, and argue that it contains the minimum ontological claim necessary for a realist understanding of the structure–agent relationship. Key words: Archer, Mouzelis, social ontology, social structure, supervenience. This paper evaluates two recent attempts to prune the hardy perennial of structure and agency. In their recent writing, both Nicos Mouzelis and Margaret Archer offer alternatives to Anthony Giddens’s structuration theory (Mouzelis 1995, 1996; Archer 1995, 1996b). The renewed attention paid to older writing in this field, and particularly to the work of David Lockwood, has caused McLennan (1995:117) to note ‘a loose but noticeable neo- traditionalist revival’ in sociological theory. The two authors exemplify this trend in different ways. Mouzelis says we should go ‘back to sociological theory,’ whereas Archer sees Lockwood as a forebear but explicitly tries to formulate a new research paradigm.
    [Show full text]
  • Margaret Archer and a Morphogenetic Take on Strategy Abstract The
    Margaret Archer and a morphogenetic take on strategy Abstract The morphogenetic framework developed by the social theorist Margaret Archer is outlined in order to suggest what it might bring to the study of strategy. It is contrasted to practice-based approaches, notably those associated with the work of Richard Whittington and the domain of strategy as practice. Archer’s work provides a non-deterministic approach which enables the situating of moments of strategic practice in a wider context. Its stress on agential reflexivity opens up interesting lines of inquiry, not least on the language of strategizing facilitated and encouraged by the multinational corporation. The approach needs to pay more attention to practices, notably organizational routines, but it offers rich resources to the student of organizational strategy. Keywords Margaret Archer; critical realism; strategy; structure; agency; reflexivity 1. Introduction Margaret Archer is a major figure in the world of social theory and sociology. Starting as a sociologist of education she has developed a distinctive approach to the study of society through her engagement with the philosophical tradition of critical realism. Through a critique of how these ideas have been applied in the social domain, she has progressively developed and refined a view of what she terms the ‘morphogenesis’ of society. This view, recognising that society is activity dependent and is changed and reproduced through the activities of human agents who operate in conditions not of their choosing, has had increasing traction in many domains of 1 inquiry, not least in the field of organization studies. Her body of work is extensive and complex.
    [Show full text]
  • The Emotionalisation of Reflexivity
    Edinburgh Research Explorer The Emotionalization of Reflexivity Citation for published version: Holmes, M 2010, 'The Emotionalization of Reflexivity', Sociology, vol. 44, no. 1, pp. 139-154. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038509351616 Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.1177/0038038509351616 Link: Link to publication record in Edinburgh Research Explorer Document Version: Peer reviewed version Published In: Sociology General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy The University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorer content complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 01. Oct. 2021 The Emotionalization of Reflexivity Mary Holmes Department of Sociology Flinders University [email protected] Biography: Mary Holmes is a senior lecturer in sociology at Flinders University in Australia. She has published various articles relating to her empirical work on distance relationships and to her other research interests in the sociology of the body and in social movements and emotions. She has recently published The Representation of Feminists as Political Actors (VDM, 2008) What is Gender?(Sage, 2008) and Gender in Everyday Life (Routledge, 2007). 1 The Emotionalization of Reflexivity Abstract Reflexivity refers to the practices of altering one’s life as a response to knowledge about one’s circumstances.
    [Show full text]
  • Isa Bulletin NO 19 (PRINTEMPS 1979) NO
    isa bulletin NO 19 (PRINTEMPS 1979) NO. 19 (SPRING 1979) EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 1978-1982 PRESIDENT: lnst. of Philosophy & Sociology Juan Linz Ulf Himmelstrand Nowy Swiat 72 Guido Martinotti Sociological Institute 00-330 Warszawa Kh. N. Momdjian Sturegatan 2 B POLAND Stefan Nowak S-752 23 Uppsala Pamela Roby SWEDEN VICE-PRES. & CHAIRPERSON, Alexander Szalai PROGRAM COMMITTEE: Francisco Zapata VICE-PRES. & CHAIRPERSON, Ralph Turner MEMBERSHIP & FINANCE Department of Sociology COMMITTEE: University of California EXECUTlVE SECRETARIES: Fernando Henrique Cardoso Los Angeles, Ca. 90024 Céline Saint-Pierre CEBRAP U.S.A. Kurt Jonassohn Alameda Campinas, 463-13° 01404 Sao Paulo, SP MEMBERS: BRAZIL Akinsola Akiwowo ISA SECRETARIAT: Joseph Ben-David C.P. 719, Succursale "A" VICE-PRES. & CHAIRPERSON, Jacques Dofny Montréal, Qué. H3C 2V2 RESEARCH COUNCIL: Leela Dube CANADA Magdalena Sokolowska Anne-Marie Guillemard Tel:(514) 282-4634 Polish Academy of Sciences Shogo Koyano Cable - ISAGRAM MONTREAL SUB-COMMITTEES RESEARCH COORDINATlNG Shogo Koyano Margaret Archer COMMITTEE: Alexander Szalai Andrée Michel Magdalena Sokolowska, Chairperson Francisco Zapata Else ~yen Leela Dube Tom Bottomore Akinsola Akiwowo PROGRAM COMMITTEE: Katy Brooks Joseph Ben-David Ralph Turner, Chairperson (one additional member remains to be Anne-Marie Guillemard (members to be elected) elected) Enzo Mingione Stefan Nowak Else Oyen PUBLICATlONS COMMITTEE: STA TUTES REVISION COMMITTEE: Pamela Roby Jacques Dofny, Chairperson Ulf Himmelstrand, Chairperson Guido Martinotti Albert Cherns MEMBERSHIP & FINANCE COMMITTEE: Arthu: Meier Juan Linz Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Chairperson Gennadi Osipov Alexander Szalai CONTENTS Report on the Meeting of the Publications Calendar of Future Meelings ..........•...... p.13 Committee . ....... ...... p.2 Journals p.15 Report on the Meeting of the Statutes Revision Commitlee p.2 Olher Informalion p.15 ISA Grants lo Research Committees .....•..
    [Show full text]
  • Margaret Archer
    From Margaret Scotford Archer, Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 1995. Pages 59-61. Elisionism Margaret Archer PDF generated using the open source mwlib toolkit. See http://code.pediapress.com/ for more information. PDF generated at: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 20:00:02 UTC Contents Articles Margaret Archer 1 Elisionism 2 Holism 3 Atomism 10 Emergentism 19 Morphogenesis 24 References Article Sources and Contributors 27 Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors 28 Article Licenses License 29 Margaret Archer 1 Margaret Archer Margaret Scotford Archer (born 20 January 1943) spent most of her academic career at the University of Warwick, UK, where she was for many years Professor of Sociology. She is now a professor at l'Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland. She is best known for coining the term elisionism in her 1995 book Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach. She studied at the University of London, graduating B.Sc. in 1964 and Ph.D. in 1967 with a thesis on The Educational Aspirations of English Working Class Parents. She was a lecturer at the University of Reading from 1966 to 1973. She is one of the most influential theorists in the critical realist tradition. At the 12th World Congress of Sociology, she was elected as the first woman President of the International Sociological Association, is a founder member of both the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and the Academy of Learned Societies in the Social Sciences. She is a Trustee of the Centre for Critical Realism. She has supervised many PhD students, many of whom have gone on to contribute towards the substantive development of critical realism in the social sciences.
    [Show full text]
  • Re-Addressing the Cultural System: Problems and Solutions in Margaret Archer’S Theory of Culture
    Re-Addressing the Cultural System: Problems and Solutions in Margaret Archer’s Theory of Culture Paper to the Political Studies Conference 2017 Jack Newman (PhD Student at the University of Leeds) Abstract Margaret Archer’s morphogenetic model (1995) has had a significant and lasting impact on both the structure-agency debate and the critical realist approach to social science. Consequently, it has also had a growing influence on political analysis through advocates such as Stuart McAnulla (2002, 2005, 2006) and critics such as Colin Hay (1995, 2002, 2010). However, Archer’s particular treatment of culture (1996) has not only been less influential in political analysis and the social sciences as a whole but has also received a number of criticisms that present problematic challenges to her analytical dualism between culture and agency. This paper seeks to reassert Archer’s notion of culture in a partial acquiescence to critics, by (1) expanding the theoretical foundation of her approach, (2) exploring the role of discourse and (3) proposing a model of interaction between the cultural and structural realms. Archer’s theoretical foundation derives partly from Roy Bhaskar’s work on critical realism (especially 1975 and 1979) and partly from David Lockwood’s work on systems theory (1964), but it is a further engagement with Bhaskar’s work in particular that allows a strengthening of this foundation and of the justification for using Archer’s approach. The structural-cultural interaction and the role of discourse are developed in this paper using the work of Norman Fairclough, who is best known as the central theorist of Critical Discourse Analysis.
    [Show full text]
  • Social Sciences $€ £ ¥
    social sciences $€ £ ¥ Article Reflexivity and Structural Positions: The Effects of Generation, Gender and Education Tea Golob 1 and Matej Makaroviˇc 1,2,* 1 School of Advanced Social Studies in Nova Gorica, Institute for Social Transformations, Gregorˇciˇceva19, SI-5000 Nova Gorica, Slovenia 2 Faculty of Information Studies, Ljubljanska 31a, SI-8000 Novo Mesto, Slovenia * Correspondence: [email protected] Received: 5 June 2019; Accepted: 21 August 2019; Published: 27 August 2019 Abstract: This article examines how reflexivity, as understood by Margaret Archer, is affected by the structural settings in the context of morphogenetic social and cultural transformations. It draws on the Slovenian national case as an example of swift structural and cultural shifts towards late modernity. For that purpose, we apply a new measurement tool developed through our previous research, which upgrades Archer’s existing ICONI model by distinguishing between the intensity and the concurrent practicing of the reflexivity modes within the inner dialogue. Based on a general national sample, we confirm not only the reflexivity changes from the older to the younger generations but also the role of education and gender in reflexivity levels and modes. We refer to the problem of deprivation and the importance of linking fractured reflexivity to the challenges, women are facing nowadays. Thus, the article confirms some of the critics of Archer’s work, demonstrating—despite significant individual differences—the clear impact of the individual’s background and her/his position in the social structure. Keywords: reflexivity; Margaret Archer; structure; Slovenia; morphogenetic transformation 1. Introduction The purpose of this article is to provide an empirical observation on how individuals’ reflexivity is affected by their positions in the social structure.
    [Show full text]
  • Habitus and Reflexivity in Tandem? Insights from Postcolonial Sri Lanka
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Heriot Watt Pure Habitus and Reflexivity in Tandem? Insights from Postcolonial Sri Lanka Abstract This paper contributes to the unresolved concern about the relationship between habitus and reflexivity. Using Sri Lanka, a postcolonial social-context as the research ground, the paper provides a contemporary interpretation of individuals’ reflexive and habitual behaviour that displaces Bourdieu’s concept of habitus as inappropriate for the representation of 21st century social dynamics. While Sri Lanka is often labelled a traditional society, where habitual, routine, pre-reflexive action is thought to be more common, studies that question this generalised view appear to be largely absent. Therefore, based on a critical realist morphogenetic perspective that renders the analytical possibility of both routine and conscious action, this paper investigates the role of habitus and reflexivity through seventy- five work and life histories gathered from Sri Lanka. The findings suggest that even the reproduction of traditional practices have increasingly become a reflexive task; thus, this work supports the position that habitus fails to provide reliable guidance to understand social-action, even within a society labelled as traditional. Key Words: Critical Realism, Habitus, Morphogenetic Approach, Reflexivity, Sri Lanka 1 Introduction This paper contributes to the unresolved sociological debate on reflexivity and habitus and demonstrates that the concept of reflexivity is more viable than routinised, habitual behaviour in understanding contemporary social-action. Reflexivity is the non-routine, creative individual action that responds to social influence upon their lives, transcending existing relations between structure, culture and agency (Brock, Carrigan and Scambler, 2017).
    [Show full text]