Critical Agency and the Recovery of 'Something Like a Subject' in Contemporary Social Theory
Date of Award
2005
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelors
Department
Social Sciences
First Advisor
Brain, David
Keywords
Structure, Agency, Critical Theory, Post-Structuralism
Area of Concentration
Sociology
Abstract
This thesis examines the 'problem' of agency as it emerged as such in the wake of structuralism, focusing specifically on how this 'problem' figures in the works of Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, and Pierre Bourdieu. Beginning with the 'ethical turn' in Foucault's work on the 'care of the self' among the Greeks, I examine the construction of agency in these authors' works in order to examine the implications of their postsovereign account of agency for political and ethical life. Agency, in each of their accounts, is reconceptualized as a quality that might be achieved through the assumption of a critical attitude aimed both at the world and at oneself. Critique is thus a practice aimed at the recovery of agency, a recovery that takes place not only on the theoretical level, but moreover, consists of a concrete political project directed at the materialization of the conditions of possibility that would allow this capacity for agency to develop. I end by considering the role that sociology has to play in this project.
Recommended Citation
Collier, Lisa, "Critical Agency and the Recovery of 'Something Like a Subject' in Contemporary Social Theory" (2005). Theses & ETDs. 3505.
https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/theses_etds/3505
Rights
This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.