Activists and emotional reflexivity: towards Touraine's subject as social movement

Activists are embedded in the world that they are endeavouring to change. However, to become a Subject, capable of truly creating society, Touraine argues that individuals need to be deintegrated. Achieving such deintegration involves developing skills in self-reflection. This research examines the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sociology (Oxford) 2006-10, Vol.40 (5), p.873-892
Main Author: King, Debra S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activism
Activists
Australia
Emotions
Modernity
Reflexivity
Social change
Social construction
Social movements
Social research
Sociological theory
Subject
Touraine, Alaine
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Summary:Activists are embedded in the world that they are endeavouring to change. However, to become a Subject, capable of truly creating society, Touraine argues that individuals need to be deintegrated. Achieving such deintegration involves developing skills in self-reflection. This research examines the practices of a cohort of Australian activists in developing these skills. In contrast to Touraine's normative-cognitive framework of self-reflection, these activists engaged in practices of emotional reflexivity. One of these practices was called re-evaluation counselling. It was only by reflecting through and on their emotions that they were able to identify and change the processes through which they both participated in and challenged hegemonic constructions of the world. If Subjects are to become social movement in late modernity, more attention is required on the emotional dimensions of de-integration. In moving towards this end, this research uses the concept of emotional reflexivity to build upon Touraine's theory of subjectivation. Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications, Inc.
ISSN:0038-0385
DOI:10.1177/0038038506067511