The anatomy of modern reflexivity

Abstract

This article reconsiders the place of the concept of classification in current sociological and anthropological thought. Modernity is characterized by the collapse of classifications, the attempts at reclassification, and the final acceptance of the unclassifiable. Distancing oneself from classifications is one of the symptoms of reflexivity, which gives impetus to broadly understood social mobility. At the same time, “reflexivity” itself begins to raise more and more questions as its power to liberate the individual from the constrains of social structure proves problematic.

Firstly, unequal distribution of the resources of reflexivity is revealed. Secondly, it is pointed out that both reflexivity and private classifications are regulated in such a way, as to produce mobility of an adaptive kind. As a result, the unclassifiable character of an individual may be seen as a collective representation, typical of modernity. Daniel P. Schreber’s Memoirs of My Nervous Illnes are analysed as a background against which adaptive forms of reflexivity can be identified.