Exploring Self and Society

Exploring Self and Society

Also by Rosamund Billington and Sheelagh Strawbridge Culture and Society: A Sociology of Culture (with L. Greensides and A. Fitzsimons) Also by Jenny Hockey Experiences of Death: An Anthropological Account Growing Up and Growing Old: Ageing and Dependency in the Lifecourse (with A. James) Death, Gender and Ethnicity (with N. Small and D. Field)

Exploring Self and Society Rosamund Billington Jenny Hockey Sheelagh Strawbridge MACMILLAN

Rosamund Billington, Jenny Hockey and Sheelagh Strawbridge 1998 Softcover reprint of the hardcover I st edition 1998 978-0-333-63222-2 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 1998 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world ISBN 978-0-333-63223-9 ISBN 978-1-349-26632-6 (ebook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-26632-6 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. 10 9 8 07 06 05 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 04 03 02 01 00 99 98

For all our students, past, present and future

Contents Acknowledgements Introduction 1 Understanding the Social World Preparing to explore Mapping the social world Analysing the social world We are all social theorists Constructing the social world The structure of the social world Types of social structure Aspects of social structures Social formations Consciousness, discourse, subjectivity and identity Conclusion 2 Personal Identity 'Home is where the heart is' The myth of the self-contained individual The discovery of the 'Western' individual 'Selfhood' in differing cultures Theorising the 'self' Roles Power in the mirror of society Monologues and the suppression of the 'other' X 1 5 5 8 11 14 17 18 22 25 28 29 34 37 37 39 42 45 48 50 52 54 Vll

Vlll Contents Who am T? Dialogues constructing selves 56 Conclusion 57 3 Transitions through the Lifecourse 58 Being and becoming 58 Accounting for transition 62 Rites of passage 66 Childbirth, initiation and death 73 Postmodern or post-traditional? 79 Conclusion 83 4 Sexuality 85 What is sexuality? 85 Nature or culture? 86 Research and common sense 88 Describing and categorising behaviour and experience 91 Searching for explanations: the psychoanalytic tradition 97 Beyond 'scientific' description and explanation: discourses and narratives Conclusion 103 109 5 Health and Illness 111 Bodily changes 111 Mapping the mind and body 114 Knowledge and power 117 Social relations and the historical development of biomedicine 120 Social relations and illness behaviour 125 Theories of medicine 131 Conclusion 137 6 Doing and Being at Work 139 Structures of work 139 Work, meaning and identity 141 Social production 144 Social action and rational work 145 Organising social action 146 Meanings of work 148 Meaningful work 150 Work cultures and masculinity 153 'Women's work is never done' 156

Contents IX Women 'at work' 159 Emotional labour: public and private work 160 Gender work scripts 162 Working metaphors 163 Conclusion 164 7 The Wider Context 166 Foreigners abroad 166 Community 169 Insiders and outsiders: similarity and difference 171 State, citizenship and nationality 173 Nationality as imagined community 174 Myths of national identity 183 'Race' and ethnicity 188 Citizenship and the nation-state 190 Conclusion 192 8 Globalisation and Identity 193 The global framework 193 Mapping a global landscape 195 Making sense of global inequalities 198 Diversity and difference: local identities 204 Diversity and difference: cosmopolitans 206 Identity and consumption 209 Conclusion 214 9 Acting Human 216 Contemplating knowledge and action 216 Shifting realities 218 Knowledge into action 220 Not Saussure 224 Relativism versus totalitarianism 227 Little narratives of social life 230 Alternative narratives 232 Answers to relativism? 235 Glossary 242 Bibliography 264 Name Index 282 Subject Index 286

Acknowledgements We would like to thank the following who have helped us in various ways: Steve McCorrie and Louis Billington for supplying valuable references for Chapters 6 and 7; Allison James and Andrew Dawson for their contribution of ideas and references for Chapter 8. Robert McCann (who was aged eight at the time) contributed the 'royal' joke in Chapter 7. Thanks to Pam Davies who shared part of the day of the royal funeral with Ros and helped her to clarify feelings and ideas to add to the book. Jackie Smales and other staff in the Learning Support Centre on the lnglemire Avenue campus of the University of Lincolnshire and Humberside deserve thanks for their patience in sorting out Ros's wordprocessing muddles in completing our final draft. We are particularly grateful to Ethel Strawbridge who provided us with the many cups of coffee and good meals without which this book would have taken even longer to produce. ROSAMUND BILLINGTON JENNY HOCKEY SHEELAGH STRAWBRIDGE X