Talking to ourselves: between structure and agency

Talking to ourselves: between structure and agency Experienced Difference “I’m different from the group I’m comparing myself to” Assumed Pathology “This difference must mean something is wrong with me” Self-Questioning “If there isn’t something wrong with me then what explains this difference? Self-Clarification “Maybe some people are this way and there’s nothing wrong with me” biographical stages as analytical constructs identified through empirical observation of biographical transitions unpacking biographical transitions explaining rather than describing Synchronic / Diachronic Cognition / Categories by understanding the interface between the individual and their cultural & structural circumstance at specific stages (synchronic) we can understand the dynamics which lead to biographical change over time (diachronic) mediating concepts with a dual emphasis on the subjective and objective aspects of social life allow us to construing empirical data in ways which frame individuals as either over-socialised or under-socialised “the argument that the social world can be represented by conceptual singularities means that the black holes that surround them ‘eat up’ large chunks of social reality and leave us with a severely impoverished, emptied-out vision of the social world” - Derek Layder most typically we end up losing the subject's inner life or their outer circumstances...... mark@markcarrigan.net www.markcarrigan.net Realist Social Theory and a/Sexuality Studies Imagining Planning Reliving Pondering Worrying Deciding Rehearsing Prioritising “the regular exercise of the mental ability, shared by all normal people, to consider themselves in relation to their social contexts and vice versa” - Margaret Archer Reflexivity Structural and cultural properties objectively shape the situations that agents confront exercising powers of constraint and enablement in relation to Subjects' own constellations of concerns, as subjective defined in relation to the three orders of reality: nature, practice and the social Courses of action are produced through the reflexive deliberations of subjects who subjectively determine their practical projects in relation to their objective circumstances making our way through the world “There is a life-long dialectic between objectivity and subjectivity because circumstances can change (necessarily or contingently) and so can we (again necessarily, as we move through the life cycle, and contingently because we can re-assess our concerns).” If we understand the exercise of reflexivity at particular moments of an individual biography, we become able to understand the direction of that biography as a whole over time INTERNAL CONVERSATION This shouldn't be construed as a rationalistic conception of human agency (though we do often reach rational decisions about what to do and who to be) Our knowledge of our self and our circumstances is fallible Our emotions guide us, reflecting the range of our concerns in a way which outstrips our deliberative awareness Our deliberations are constrained and enabled by the linguistic and cultural resources available to us Sometimes we struggle to say and express things which, at present, we lack the capacity to in our present social or cultural situation What does the approach look like in practice...? 8 in depth interviews, 174 online surveys and online ethnography within the asexual community This is where the research participants found the asexual community... Empirical differences in movement through this trajectory (such as the length of the 'stages') direct further inquiry e.g. why do older asexual people seem to have spent so much longer at the stage of 'assumed pathology'? The point is NOT to homogenize research participants... Identifying underlying commonalities and differences, within apparently heterogeneous biographical trajectories In doing so offer explanations of movement through such trajectories (e.g. the sexual assumption) without unduly privileging either the structural or agential aspects of such transitions