Evaluate the importance of changes in personal identity to social change.
Evaluate the importance of changes in personal identity to social change.
Your discussion should at some point make explicit reference to textual or visual evidence supporting your views and should analyse issues involved in your selection of evidence.
Personal identity can be defined as a pattern of attributes that identify an individual to one and to others. Personal making it unique to the individual and apart from anyone else and identity is belonging to a group sharing the same characteristics.
Social change is the transformation of cultural and social institutions over time. Social change can happen anywhere, and can vary from place to place it is usually compared to sometime before, even if it was not noticed at the time of the change it was noticed over a period of time. Social change is sometimes intentional, but often unplanned, it often generates controversy and some social changes matter more than others.
I will in this essay weigh up evidence for and against the claims that changes in personal identity and social change are linked.
Identity is a much more fluid entity now than it was in pervious years, men's and women's identities have changed from post modern times when the traditional image of gender roles were of women being the housewives maintaining sole responsibility for the home and the family and the man who was the worker and bread winner to a more equal gendered arrangement of the women becoming the successful business women and the man who is sensitive to women's needs, becomes a more equal partner and takes on equal responsibility for the home and family.
Social change is structured by patterns and orders, it involves investigating and comparing times and places in which society has become different or changed in some form. It is regarded as being diverse, varied and multi-faceted and involves the ordering and reordering of space and time it can transform people's lives.
Social changes in the media, economics and politics have allowed for a greater freedom in personal identities and the choice to choose an identity that can be taken, worked upon and amended accordingly.
Causes of social change include:
. Culture - Changes in cultural practices can have an affect on an individual's personal identity.
2. Conflict - Race, gender and class can be causes of conflict that initiate change.
3. Ideas - The expression of theories and new ideas change society, certain individuals bestowed because of their bravery or their beliefs can be the prime example of personal and social change such as that of Nelson Mandela when he was released after serving 27 years behind bars for speaking out against apartheid in South Africa, enabling black South Africans access to many places that before they were excluded from. He liberated the black South African on a macro level enabling change for the black South African on an individual micro level.
4. Demographic - When there is an increase in the population of an area there will be social changes that affect the individuals living in or around the surrounding areas economically or financially.
5. Social Movements - Any major social movements or protests can cause social changes that affect individuals personally. Social movements involve people joining together for a common cause to change social processes of an organised effort to encourage or oppose some dimension of social change; examples of these social movements are, The American Civil Rights Movement or the Women's Rights Movements.
Modernity involves the social patterns that are linked to industrialization. The introduction of new technologies and social change can all be linked to modernity.
Relations between changes in personal identity and social change is touched ...
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5. Social Movements - Any major social movements or protests can cause social changes that affect individuals personally. Social movements involve people joining together for a common cause to change social processes of an organised effort to encourage or oppose some dimension of social change; examples of these social movements are, The American Civil Rights Movement or the Women's Rights Movements.
Modernity involves the social patterns that are linked to industrialization. The introduction of new technologies and social change can all be linked to modernity.
Relations between changes in personal identity and social change is touched on in Kath Woodward's chapter 5 of the reader "Up close and personal: the changing face of intimacy". Intimacy has undergone profound changes. It is what is close and personal to an individual; disclosing intimacy is a person disclosing their innermost feelings thoughts and emotions to other people. Social changes have geared people to disclose their intimate experiences with the public. The private and public boundaries become blurred within these new forms of disclosing intimacy as in the past intimacy was kept behind the closed doors of ones private home. The public arena in people's lives was kept for discussing economical and financial factors not disclosing what one feels or participates in within the private arena.
Social changes that make the transition to modernity can sometimes cause an emotional hole that is filled with uncertainties and doubt regarding the nature of ones own existence. Intimacy, nationalism and having a past that one can relate one's identity to are filling these emotional holes.
Anthony Giddens discusses social changes and intimacy. He uses intimacy to describe the 'self'. He says people feel the need for reflexivity in which people's identities are not just based on external factors alone but individuals are constantly reflecting and reworking their identities according to the social change of the time. "Who am I?" is a question often asked regarding identities, 'pure relationships' described by Giddens may satisfy this enquiry. Participating in a more voluntary relationship where one can choose their own partners would allow for a more equal relationship based on intimacy and not a contractual arrangement.
Giddens optimistic views are discussed by Lynn Jamieson (1998), she criticises his theories with her feminist views. Whereas Giddens feels there is more equality within his theory of the 'pure relationship', Jamieson believes there are still inequalities in social class race, age and gender even with disclosing intimacy. The public and private binary opposition is subject to change and re-negotiation. Giddens does not pay enough attention to material factors and inequalities. Social change occurs across different times, in different spaces and across different levels of social relations.
This macro change of intimacy has changed the social organisation of society it also involves changes that affect society on a micro individual level affecting individuals attitudes and understandings.
New times and spaces are being created by social change, intimate and private relationships have altered the boundaries between times and spaces of ones private life, different social changes are interrelated.
The modern city discussed in chapter 1 of the Reader (p20), talks about Georg Simmel and his theory of the city and social changes. He felt the city creates opportunities to allow individuals to develop identities that are unique to the individual and constantly giving individuals new places and new people to interact and relate to, people's personal attitude and behaviour has an impact on other people within the city. The city is a site for social change because of the interactions between people, groups and social institutions. Although social changes in the city can be unpredictable it can still be hybrid for more opportunities because of interactions with other people in the city. Simmel argues because of the growth of cities it has an impact on people's attitudes and how they behave and the interaction that takes place between individuals.
Space and time also changed with these macro changes, it affected the way people spent their time and where they spent it. Cities were built to manage how people lived to fit them all in a small space; it is usually split up into town, country and where the people predominantly dwell. Time was divided into working time and home or leisure.
With the transformation in communication and technologies brought with it changes in disclosing intimacy and people's personal relationships. Other social transformations such as the disclosure of the private lives of celebrities in media have seen transformations in the way people discuss their personal lives in the public arena.
TV chat shows such as Jerry Springer and Oprah Winfrey display the emotions of people in reality, these shows blur the boundaries between public and private, boundaries that are not fixed in time or space, although they represent social changes, they are expressed in the forms of intimate space, public and personal expression.
There have also been micro changes in personal relationships people have their own beliefs and way of working their domestic living arrangements, childbearing and sexual relationships. Now in modern times there has been an increase in divorce, single parents, unmarried parents and same sex relationships.
Statistical data shown in the Reader (p199-200) shows the changes in people's attitudes with regards to intimate relationships. The first bar graph showing fertility patterns in teenage women within Europe. The UK was the highest, doubling some of the other countries shown. This chart however can give misleading interpretations, as we are not told how many of the teenagers were married or co-habiting. The data was taken in 1995 which is nearly 10 years ago, things could well tell a different story if taken now.
The second chart is a scatter graph showing marriages and divorces in the UK between 1961-1997 per thousand people, it shows how marriages have considerably dropped with now under 200,000 marriages compared to the 1970's when it was at its peak of nearly 400,000. Divorces continue to rise especially after the Divorce Reform Act in 1969. There has also been a rise in remarriages, this shows the change in people's perception of marriage and how it is less important now that in the past.
The final chart shows decrees awarded, by proven fact in England and Wales in 1997. Adultery was the man's most popular reason for divorce, whilst women divorced mainly for unreasonable behaviour.
All the charts fail to show how ethnic minority families are involved in the data. It does show how there are gender differences and men still hold the power, although it does show that women have more choice in their lives and more control over their future.
The introduction of new communication technologies offers the intimacy or a definition of disclosing intimacy by being able to talk about oneself to others without the face-to-face interaction. Cyberspace is simulated space that allows individuals to communicate with each other as if they were near each other whether they were in the same street or the other side of the world. Cyberspace allows individuals to escape their own bodies that may be in a physical environment they would be unable to because race, age, sex and gender would not be hidden factors. Within cyberspace identity is fluid and constructed by oneself.
Virtual reality allows people to create identities and they then form relationships that are based on these new identities, leaving their true own identities behind. There are no social roles that one has to play or indeed one can create and play. Virtual reality allows freedom as well as anonymity.
However the anonymity may sometimes cause ethical problems as described in Activity 3 of the Reader (p92). An account of an early example of computer communication where disclosure caused a stir when a lady who called herself Julie, a disabled older women developed relationships with other individuals over the internet, she offered them advice and was thoughtful and caring. Later Julie was discovered to be a male psychiatrist, who was middle aged and able bodied. People were very annoyed, as they felt deceived.
The world-web a massive macro social change offers a new medium for self-presentation with a considerably larger potential audience than traditional modes.
Space and time are also prevalent in this social change as there are no boundaries between countries and what would have taken time to communicate is now happening in seconds.
The mobile phone is also a technological macro change that changed society and individual relationships. Communicating with other people can be done anywhere at anytime.
Anthony Giddens talks about personal identity in Chapter 6 of the reader. He describes the 'self' as a well-constructed entity that is reconstructed according to the social relations at the time. Individuals go through role playing, playing whatever role is needed, a form of staging oneself and the ability to switch to different roles depending on the situation.
Individuals in society have to view themselves in a certain way to enable them to manage their own lives; they regulate their own behaviour according to how society has constructed them to be. Individuals are expected to take responsibility for their own actions; they are encouraged to regulate themselves. Social interaction with other individuals is what makes up the image and the conduct of the self.
Personal identity in modern societies is an inescapable issue, we all sometimes in our lives question our identity, traditional roles provided well established codes and moral rules so one could identify with the norm of society. In more modern times individuals have to work on our own identities and set rules and provide roles for one self.
Personal identity on a macro level is usually caused at an institutional level affecting society on a whole as described by Foucault when he described his theory of the self. Individual personal identity has connections with the micro aspects of society, they are both interrelated and work in conjunction with one another.
If we take intimate relationships as an example of the macro and micro levels of social change, the social institutions and the state did not over the last sixty years decide to change people's attitudes on the role of relationships, or the increase rate of divorce and the acceptance of relationships of the same sex. But these changes cannot come from an individual level either, people did not just decide to change their minds regarding relationships, there is a network of macro and micro forces involved to change society as it does. Social changes are brought about by changes in how individuals view life, which in turn can stem from social influences and observations. Law has also changed people's conception of marriage, divorce and sexuality on a macro level, but only because there has been a demand for these changes from the level of people living everyday lives, which is on a micro level. Although social movements such as women's liberation on a macro level stems from everyday lives, which will obviously lead to not all people being satisfied with everyday life on a micro level. The example shows how macro and micro levels of social change interrelate with each other making them inseparable.
In conclusion the social changes that prevail in society suggest that they change the individuals conception of the self. These changes are important as they provide individuals with a framework to able to work with and enable them to recognise their own identity
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Sharon Ebanks T274910X DD201 - TMA05
