Individuality and society

the social construction of individual subjectivity in classical and contemporary social theory

Abstract

This article seeks to revisit foundational issues in classical and contemporary social theory regarding the so-called processes of socialization, subjectivation or individuation. Our intention is to present some of the formulations that explain the formation of subjects (their ways of thinking, feeling and acting) within a given society or culture, in other words, to analyze the process of relational constitution of «individual» subjectivity or interiority. Along the way, we will point out the social sciences’ critique of the hegemonic notion of the individual and briefly explore the idea of the crisis of identities. We will pay special attention to the processes of subjectivity formation in contemporary social agents, by analyzing the writings of Norbert Elias and the concept of habitus in Pierre Bourdieu.