Sociologi: Paul Heelas
Uncertainties of Modernity
What is it about modernity that has facilitated self-sacralization?
-The NA runs counter to many of the great canons and assumptions of modernity.
- the loss of faith in religion, in particular in northern europe.
The history of NA could not have taken place unless what was on offer had exercised appeal.
different paths emphazise diferent attributes. What is on offer varies very considerable.
The NA has attracted a correspondingly diverse clientele.
Our attention has to be directed to sprcifics, ascertaining whether particular offerings tend to attract those with particular interests, values, expectations and problems.
A general frame
many of those attracted are unsure of their identities.... or they experience difficulties identifying with particular forms of life. + those who have faith in various certainties of modernity.
NA provides its own rendering of these same certainties.
The quest for solutions to identity problems encourages people to do something new.
problems with identities.
well-educated people who have become disenchanted by what the mainstream of society has been able to offer are the most likely to take the NA seriously + middle or higher class people.
+ people who have lost faith in the certainties of the capitalistic mainstream.
No longer being content with conventional means of obtaining prosperity, they react by turning to magical systems.
the turn to inner spirituality: some scenarios
NA caters for those who believe that modernity is in crisis.
Eileen Campbell : the current age appears to be failing dismally in so many respects.
Shirly Maclaine : New agers are individuals who are profoundly concerned with what is happening to our planet and all the life residing on it.. they want to save our planet from destruction by beginning with themselves.
liberation from the iron cage
those concerned have felt that they have been identified by the institutional order.
Weber : has made a famous analysis about modernity as an iron cage which many theorists have portrayed.
+
lives are seen as dominated by rules, regulations
+
people feel that they must escape.
Peter Berger : the rationality that is intrinsic to modern tecnology imposes itself upon both the activity and the consciousness of the individual as control, limitation and frustration.
To explain why only some have expressed unrestrained enthusiasm Berger claim that participants belong to the gentle revolution which are unaccustomed to harshness.
Berger : Many found the uncertainties of life beyond structure too much to bear.
Breaking with materialism...
Those attracted to the more counter-cultural are uncertain that materialistic consumption provides the answers.
External goods fail to add up to anything which is intrinsically satisfying.
Abraham Maslow : Hierarchy of needs (behovspyramide) is employed to help explain why people should be motivated to mve from the materialistic realm to the realm of spirituality.
Ronald Inglehart : people act to fulfill a number of differien need, which are pursued in hierarchical oreder, according to their relative urgency for survival.
+
western publics have for a number of years experienced exceptionally high levels of economic and physical security = have begun to give increasing emphasis to other type of needs.
Maslow : once any particular lower order need is satisfied, the next in the hierarchy will simply emerge.
Participants of NA events are ofent in their 40s
institutional failures.
The NA with its detraditionalized ethicality and its gendered provisions are erfect for women.
Christopher Lash : after the political turmoil of the 60s, americans have retreated to purely personal preoccuoations.
+
the idea is that the failure of 1960s activism to bring about a new social order helped fuel 1970s interest in that other alternative, the world which lies within.
The fragilities of our times...
Marshall Berman : all that i solid melts into air.
with nothing else to believe in, one is forced to come to believe in oneself and what that has to offer.
Berger: utilize what might be called the crumbling cage thesis = modernity is now seen as replete with uncertainty.
mainstream institutions cease to be the home of the self.
The turn to the self has a cultural momentum which takes peolpe deeper into themselves.
Na have appeal because they provide identity provisions for those who have been adrift in the counter-culture.
Fundamentalistic Christianity, perhaps attracting some 60 million in the USA, shows no sign of withering away.
Inconsiderable numbers of the population are interested in themselves, their nature and what they COULD become.
Gehlen / Berger : their thesis is, that mainstream institutions are seen as devoid of existential significanse.
The turn to prosperity: some scenarios.
emphasis on those within the mainstream.
Healing cultural contradictions
Daniel Bell : 3 realms which are ruled by contrary axial principles, the economy (ruled by efficiency), the policy ruled by equality and the culture (ruled by selfrealization)
Steven Tipton : est = Eberhardt seminar training = religiøs gruppe der rådgiver virksomheder.
+
work hard and achieve your goals in order to feel alive and natural (est´s advise)
Peter Berger : the problem of work = the two spheres (public and privacy) are geographically and socially seperate. Real life and ones authentic self are supposed to be centered in the private sphere.
All those who believe that their expressivistic values are not being catered for at work are potential applicants.
Mopping up the ....
Nikolas Rose : capitalism destroys those cultural formations which have traditionally sustained identity.
+
certain NA "therapists" have benefited from the desire of people to enhance their effiacy as autonomous human beings.
The NA is drawn upon to restore the self of the go-getting individual.
Handling the uncertainties...
Marvin Harris : much of the current spiritual thrust constitutes a misunderstood attempt to save America´s dream of worldly progress by magical and supernatural means.
+
many get involved in the NA for reasons to do with prosperity.
Roy Wallis : underlying much of the rhetoric of awareness and realising potential is the theme of personal succes in securing the valued goals of this world.
+
the quest for prosperity co-exists with the desire for liberation from social inhibitions.
Four general accounts
T. J. Jackson Lears : the multiplicity of roles and selves we are called upon to play out mean that we no longer have a firm sense of identity.
Jacob Needleman : mainstream religion fails to provide practical techniques, method and discipline... no wonder the young became disillusioned by religion.
Bryan Wilson : sects proliferate in periods of social unrest.
+
if indeed rapid change serves to undermine the securities of the established order, it is quite conceivable that people turn within for identity provision.
Reflection
One does not have to join the NA to handle problems affecting one´s identity as a prosperous human being.
What is it about modernity that has facilitated self-sacralization?
-The NA runs counter to many of the great canons and assumptions of modernity.
- the loss of faith in religion, in particular in northern europe.
The history of NA could not have taken place unless what was on offer had exercised appeal.
different paths emphazise diferent attributes. What is on offer varies very considerable.
The NA has attracted a correspondingly diverse clientele.
Our attention has to be directed to sprcifics, ascertaining whether particular offerings tend to attract those with particular interests, values, expectations and problems.
A general frame
many of those attracted are unsure of their identities.... or they experience difficulties identifying with particular forms of life. + those who have faith in various certainties of modernity.
NA provides its own rendering of these same certainties.
The quest for solutions to identity problems encourages people to do something new.
problems with identities.
well-educated people who have become disenchanted by what the mainstream of society has been able to offer are the most likely to take the NA seriously + middle or higher class people.
+ people who have lost faith in the certainties of the capitalistic mainstream.
No longer being content with conventional means of obtaining prosperity, they react by turning to magical systems.
the turn to inner spirituality: some scenarios
NA caters for those who believe that modernity is in crisis.
Eileen Campbell : the current age appears to be failing dismally in so many respects.
Shirly Maclaine : New agers are individuals who are profoundly concerned with what is happening to our planet and all the life residing on it.. they want to save our planet from destruction by beginning with themselves.
liberation from the iron cage
those concerned have felt that they have been identified by the institutional order.
Weber : has made a famous analysis about modernity as an iron cage which many theorists have portrayed.
+
lives are seen as dominated by rules, regulations
+
people feel that they must escape.
Peter Berger : the rationality that is intrinsic to modern tecnology imposes itself upon both the activity and the consciousness of the individual as control, limitation and frustration.
To explain why only some have expressed unrestrained enthusiasm Berger claim that participants belong to the gentle revolution which are unaccustomed to harshness.
Berger : Many found the uncertainties of life beyond structure too much to bear.
Breaking with materialism...
Those attracted to the more counter-cultural are uncertain that materialistic consumption provides the answers.
External goods fail to add up to anything which is intrinsically satisfying.
Abraham Maslow : Hierarchy of needs (behovspyramide) is employed to help explain why people should be motivated to mve from the materialistic realm to the realm of spirituality.
Ronald Inglehart : people act to fulfill a number of differien need, which are pursued in hierarchical oreder, according to their relative urgency for survival.
+
western publics have for a number of years experienced exceptionally high levels of economic and physical security = have begun to give increasing emphasis to other type of needs.
Maslow : once any particular lower order need is satisfied, the next in the hierarchy will simply emerge.
Participants of NA events are ofent in their 40s
institutional failures.
The NA with its detraditionalized ethicality and its gendered provisions are erfect for women.
Christopher Lash : after the political turmoil of the 60s, americans have retreated to purely personal preoccuoations.
+
the idea is that the failure of 1960s activism to bring about a new social order helped fuel 1970s interest in that other alternative, the world which lies within.
The fragilities of our times...
Marshall Berman : all that i solid melts into air.
with nothing else to believe in, one is forced to come to believe in oneself and what that has to offer.
Berger: utilize what might be called the crumbling cage thesis = modernity is now seen as replete with uncertainty.
mainstream institutions cease to be the home of the self.
The turn to the self has a cultural momentum which takes peolpe deeper into themselves.
Na have appeal because they provide identity provisions for those who have been adrift in the counter-culture.
Fundamentalistic Christianity, perhaps attracting some 60 million in the USA, shows no sign of withering away.
Inconsiderable numbers of the population are interested in themselves, their nature and what they COULD become.
Gehlen / Berger : their thesis is, that mainstream institutions are seen as devoid of existential significanse.
The turn to prosperity: some scenarios.
emphasis on those within the mainstream.
Healing cultural contradictions
Daniel Bell : 3 realms which are ruled by contrary axial principles, the economy (ruled by efficiency), the policy ruled by equality and the culture (ruled by selfrealization)
Steven Tipton : est = Eberhardt seminar training = religiøs gruppe der rådgiver virksomheder.
+
work hard and achieve your goals in order to feel alive and natural (est´s advise)
Peter Berger : the problem of work = the two spheres (public and privacy) are geographically and socially seperate. Real life and ones authentic self are supposed to be centered in the private sphere.
All those who believe that their expressivistic values are not being catered for at work are potential applicants.
Mopping up the ....
Nikolas Rose : capitalism destroys those cultural formations which have traditionally sustained identity.
+
certain NA "therapists" have benefited from the desire of people to enhance their effiacy as autonomous human beings.
The NA is drawn upon to restore the self of the go-getting individual.
Handling the uncertainties...
Marvin Harris : much of the current spiritual thrust constitutes a misunderstood attempt to save America´s dream of worldly progress by magical and supernatural means.
+
many get involved in the NA for reasons to do with prosperity.
Roy Wallis : underlying much of the rhetoric of awareness and realising potential is the theme of personal succes in securing the valued goals of this world.
+
the quest for prosperity co-exists with the desire for liberation from social inhibitions.
Four general accounts
T. J. Jackson Lears : the multiplicity of roles and selves we are called upon to play out mean that we no longer have a firm sense of identity.
Jacob Needleman : mainstream religion fails to provide practical techniques, method and discipline... no wonder the young became disillusioned by religion.
Bryan Wilson : sects proliferate in periods of social unrest.
+
if indeed rapid change serves to undermine the securities of the established order, it is quite conceivable that people turn within for identity provision.
Reflection
One does not have to join the NA to handle problems affecting one´s identity as a prosperous human being.
posted by uni at 11:14 PM
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