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

Abstract

The reflexivity of modernity extends into core of the self. Put in another way, in the context of a post-traditional order, the self becomes a reflexive project . One concerns the primacy of lifestyle — and its inevitability for the individual agent. Lifestyle is not a term which has much applicability to traditional cultures, because it implies choice within plurality of possible options, and is &s;adopted&s; rather than &s;handed down&s;. Lifestyle choices and life planning are not just &s;in&s;, or constituent of, the day-to-day life of social agents, but form institutional settings which help to shape their actions. Of course, for all individuals and groups, life chances condition lifestyle choices. Life planning is a specific example of a more general phenomenon that author shall discuss in some detail in subsequent chapter as the &s;colonisation of the future&s;. In the reflexive project of the self, the narrative of self-identity is inherently fragile. Moreover, the pure relationship contains internal tensions and even contradictions.