is the self social constructed ?

Anthony Giddens takes Durkheims idea that "society is far more than the sum of individual acts; it has a firmness or solidity comparable to structures in the material environment". Using this idea he describes society as in a runaway stage , he see society in the same light as Marxist do. He describes it as a "a runaway engine of enormous power" (Giddens,2009) where we put our trust within people and organisations which with have very little encounters with , this trust is coupled with risk. The idea of runaway impacts the individual not just on a trust level in a world of rapid transformation, traditional trust end to become dissolved (Giddens,2009). Giddens uses the example of wedding and divorce to portray this. In the modern age statistics on such events are passed created by doing this they shape our view , in relation to older time. A wedding /divorce would have been on a much more personal level taking advise from family members and friends within a small community. Giddens argues that this does not mark and end to post modernist but rather "a new stage of late or high modernity which takes the tendencies embedded within modern life into a more far reaching global phase" Giddens calls this reflexivity. Social reflexivity refers to the modern age, how we can no longer look on the past for roles provided to us. The primary example being that women should stay at home and look after the children. Other ideas that were taken for granted within the past are now have an impact on shaping the self such as birth control even the sex of the child. All these factors mean we have to constantly asses the world by doing this Giddens created the structure and action model this is called structuration theory . This theory suggest that society is constructed by the individual but at the same time society is creating the individual leading the view that society is not different levels objective and subjective , but more a middle which are ordered and stable across space and time with flexibility to move. This view comes under attack because of its nature not in involve class , in leaves out Transnational Corporation that influence governments (Gidden,2009) which refers to modernity as a mask for capitalism. Bourdieu keeps his market roots ideas by viewing society as capital while he views economical capital as important he says that is does not fully provide and understanding of class. He first addresses culture capital , this relates to such things as education and appreciation of the arts , theses are brought about by such people as advertisers

and designers which all are responsible for life style choices and cultural tastes also it within the family unit and education. These usually lead to certification which lead to a reputation. Reputations are his idea of symbolic capital and is similar to that of social status. Another analysis is social capital , this refers to ones social networks Bourdieu defined this as "by virtue of posing a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition" , this is the movement around a social group. He describes these as exchangeable for example knowledge which is cultural capital in a certain area would allow you to get a job which then is changed for economic capital and people with high social capital may know the right people which gets exchanged for symbolic capital. Bourdieu idea of fields is in the opposite to this. People in the arts community would have cultural capital which would allow them to be top of there field. However this capital would not be required in the production field where economical capital is present, this is where capital is none exchangeable. Bourdieu creates the idea of habitus the learned dispositions such as bodily components, ways of speaking or ways of thinking and acting (Giddens,2009) . The habitus is a durable set of values and dispositions which arise from the objective conditions of an individual's life. The habitus is then self reproducing. Certain clothes, ideas, and language used which influence people within the social group, continuality being reinforced and replicated through others. So the habitus enabled people to have a same view on the world, seeing it through the same eyes, so the habitus protects us but also restrains us. Bourdieu relies heavily on education in relation to the habitus in three stands , embodied state , which is the way we speak and think , objectified state which is possessions and institutionalised forms which is education success . Boudieu critics come main because people do seem to move out of the class barriers. His argument back would be that there children inherit a different cultural capital or economical capital which enables them to exchange. Critically comparing and evaluating these ideas goes hand in hand its like comparing a functionalist structure with a Marxist structure .Both of these ideas follow on route that the new age has defiantly changed on how we construct the self. Bourdieus approach still classed based realises on collected capital which is achieved from the people around within the habitus, Giddens idea is much more open, the ability to keep developing society and then the self. However both of these view have some critics , structure and action theory would suggest that society will or is becoming classless but class difference are present such as Paul wills study into the grouped called the lads , this study supports Bourdieus idea that class is still present , and they see school as useless . Mac and

Ghaills took this one step further and looked at another group the macho lads these fanaticized about full employment (Giddens,2009), but this brings in the hidden curriculum. Many of the skill of sticking together and brings a dull working environment to life are the keys to successes within the work place and taught them valuables lesson in how to successes within there class. However there is many arguments about the theory , one such is that government statistics show that working class children are succeeding within the education system , it is still the smallest of section but is succeeding.

Giddens uses Durkiems view that in society that women could be closer to nature due to child rearing. He does not take Durkiems claim fully but suggests that this impacts could be while they associate with jobs in caring. However Bourdieu suggest a total different theory for the gender and self. Skegg took this idea further by looking at identity of feminisation , and looks back to the Victoriana ages. Women were involved in most of the child rearing and men being the bread winner , rather than just child care roles coming . The women in here study were reluctant to describe themselves as working class be cause of the stigmatisms that goes with it the women tended to dis-identify with a perception of themselves as working class (Giddens,2009). While comparing this to men who have trade unions to feel they belong in a developing world .Working class women had lost there place from this it pushed them into care work. For them to gain some sort of identity they went into care work to become more feminine which in turn was created in the Victorian times by the middle class. Because the correct role to be a female was to care, there loss of identity and being labelled working class forced them into it to gain an identity. These women all followed Bordieus low capital , and the chance of marriage enabled them to gain responsibility and respectably , going a caring cause showed how to be a good parent and offered a way of obtaining a good wage , supposed to unemployed and qualifications. Another comparison of the theorys is how constraints the self , most sociologist agree that there is an impact of in the self but how much is under question , both of the view points view society with constraints , but this is where they end. In Giddens model it is possible to keep redefining the self though the process of reflexivity , this process is present within Bourdieus model however it is only present within the class confines . This is how power is demonstrated .With Giddens more power will come to the people but Bourdieus would still define power as class based.

Modernity is Giddens way of explaining the reflexive self which is brought about by dramatic changes within the world enables us to shape the self more , this is contradictory to Bourdieus approach , even though he does not rule out modernity input his idea than rather open more new doors it has just changed the definition of class.

References/Bibliography GIDDENS, Anthony (2009) sociology ,Polity Press, Cambridge (141)(100)(142)(846)(842)(461) WALTERS, Malcome (1994), Modern Sociological Theory ,SAGE Publications, London LAYDER, Derek (2003) Modern Social Theory, Routhledge, London LAWLER, Steph, (2008) , Identity Sociological Perspectives , Polity Press, Cambridge