Struggles For Subjectivity: Identity, Action And Youth Experience (cambridge Cultural Social Studies)

This book explores the relationship between new experiences of selfhood and new patterns of social life. It does so through an encounter with young people who confront urgent social and cultural transformations, whose experience of selfhood is unclear, often shaped by social forces that while powerful, appear difficult, if not impossible to name. These young people live in a world where institutions are weakening and identities fragmenting, where socialization into roles is being replaced by new imperatives of communication and self-esteem. Their world is shaped by new forms of freedom, but also by new forms of social polarization and conflict. More than other social groups, young people confront the imperative of locating a sense of self and subjectivity, and this book is an account of this struggle in a context of profound social and cultural change. The author draws on the experience of a diverse group of young people-graffiti artists, sufferers of anorexia, the unemployed-all from a broad range of educational and cultural backgrounds. This book renews hands-on fieldwork in the Chicago School tradition; it is one where we meet real people confronting real social situations, while its research agenda is posited within the new French "sociology of experience". Struggles for Subjectivity is not only about young people-it explores forms of crisis and struggle increasingly evident in advanced societies. This book explores the relationship between new experiences of selfhood and new patterns of social life. It does so through an encounter with young people who confront urgent social and cultural transformations, whose experience of selfhood is unclear, often shaped by social forces that while powerful, appear difficult, if not impossible to name. These young people live in a world where institutions are weakening and identities fragmenting, where socialisation into roles is being replaced by new imperatives of communication and self-esteem. Their world is shaped by new forms of freedom, but also by new forms of social polarisation and conflict. More than other social groups, young people confront the imperative of locating a sense of self and subjectivity, and this book is an account of this struggle in a context of profound social and cultural change. The author draws on the experience of a diverse group of young people -graffiti artists, sufferers of anorexia, the unemployed - all from a broad range of educational and cultural backgrounds. This book renews hands-on fieldwork in the Chicago School tradition; it is one where we meet real people confronting real social situations, while its research agenda is posited within the new French' sociology of experience'. Struggles for Subjectivity is not only about young people - it explores forms of crisis and struggle increasingly evident in advanced societies This book, first published in 2000, explores the relationship between experiences of selfhood and patterns of social life. It does so through an encounter with young people who confront urgent social and cultural transformations, whose experience of selfhood is unclear, often shaped by social forces that while powerful, appear difficult, if not impossible to name. These young people live in a world where institutions are weakening and identities fragmenting, where socialisation into roles is being replaced by imperatives of communication and self-esteem. Their world is shaped by different forms of freedom, but also by different forms of social polarisation and conflict. More than other social groups, young people confront the imperative of locating a sense of self and subjectivity, and this book is an account of this struggle in a context of profound social and cultural change. You come from the bad side: exploring social experience Something's gotta start: class consciousness We're the scum: stigmatisation, racism and crisis Morals is all you've got: in search of community I want to get out of this: the struggle against social logics None of the above: contemporary experiences of the gang You'll be forgotten: visibility and mobility of graffiti writers Between the body and the self: the anorexic terrain We stand up for what we are: ethnicity and Aboriginality Conclusion: struggles for subjectivity. This book sets out to explore the relationship between new experiences of selfhood and new patterns of social life.

This book examines the urgent social and cultural questions faced by young people today.

Kevin Mcdonald. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.