Making our Way through the World: Human Reflexivity and Social Mobility - Hardcover

Archer, Margaret S.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521874238 ISBN 13: 9780521874236

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2007

Synopsis

How do we reflect upon ourselves and our concerns in relation to society, and vice versa? Human reflexivity works through 'internal conversations' using language, but also emotions, sensations and images. Most people acknowledge this 'inner-dialogue' and can report upon it. However, little research has been conducted on 'internal conversations' and how they mediate between our ultimate concerns and the social contexts we confront. In this book, Margaret Archer argues that reflexivity is progressively replacing routine action in late modernity, shaping how ordinary people make their way through the world. Using interviewees' life and work histories, she shows how 'internal conversations' guide the occupations people seek, keep or quit; their stances towards structural constraints and enablements; and their resulting patterns of social mobility.

About this title

About the Author

Margaret S. Archer is Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick. She has written over twenty books including Structure, Agency and the Internal Conversation (2003) and Being Human: The Problem of Agency (Cambridge, 2000).

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0521874238
• ISBN 13: 9780521874236
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 352