Creating oneself: Agency, desire and feminist transformations

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

The question of individual agency lies at the heart of any political and social theory aiming to analyse the social conditions that shape reality. Drawing mainly on the works of Luce Irigaray, Judith Butler, Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze, this book endeavours to provide an account of agency as a mode of life in which social transformation and personal transformation meet and influence one another. The book describes the shortcomings of associating agency with resisting social norms or institutions, arguing that agency, as a way of life, is a dynamic of self-creation inspired by a horizon of well-being. As part of this new account of agency the book re-evaluates several key concepts, thus far under-theorized in poststructural theory. First, it addresses the question of how we might understand well-being within a post-modern framework. Second, it presents a notion of 'desire to be', designating the motivational force that drives people to act in order to create a different world. And finally, it addresses the question of how a life of transformative political practices might constitute a sense of identity, both individual and collective.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCreating Oneself
Subtitle of host publicationAgency, Desire and Feminist Transformations
PublisherPeter Lang Publishing Group
Pages1-184
Number of pages184
Volume9783034307079
ISBN (Electronic)9783035301991
ISBN (Print)3034307071, 9783034307079
StatePublished - 2011
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© Peter Lang AG, International Academic Publishers, Bern 2011. All rights reserved.

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