Intersubjectivity, agency and idiosyncratic identity

Journal article

By juxtaposing Durkheimian sociology and more recent cognitive approaches, I argue that the development of an idiosyncratic identity – a cognitive structure that is not associated with any one social intersubjectivity – exemplifies the functional interdependence between social forces and human cognition in the production of human personhood. The theory attempts to reconcile the possibility of human idiosyncrasy in the face of omnipresent social influence by describing a process where novel self-knowledge is seen as a synthesis in the dialectic of inconsistent intersubjectivities. An instance of idiosyncratic identity formation is illustrated by a case study set in a Lebanese village.

Authors: Shteynberg, G

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Anthropological Society of Oxford
• Journal: Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford Online
• Volume: 4
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 1-21
• Publication date: 2012-01-01
• DOI: 10.5287/ora-eoz8mwkkg
• ISSN: 2040-1876
• Language: English
• Keywords: JASO