Personal identity (de)formation among lifestyle travellers: A double-edged sword?

This article explores the personal identity work of lifestyle travellers – individuals for whom extended leisure travel is a preferred lifestyle that they return to repeatedly. Qualitative findings from in-depth semi-structured interviews with lifestyle travellers in northern India and southern Thailand are interpreted in light of theories on identity formation in late modernity that position identity as problematic. It is suggested that extended leisure travel can provide exposure to varied cultural praxes that may contribute to a sense of social saturation. Whilst a minority of the respondents embraced a saturation of personal identity in the subjective formation of a cosmopolitan cultural identity, several of the respondents were paradoxically left with more identity questions than answers as the result of their travels

The Non-linear Dynamics of Meaning-Processing in Social Systems

Social order cannot be considered as a stable phenomenon because it contains an order of reproduced expectations. When the expectations operate upon one another, they generate a non-linear dynamics that processes meaning. Specific meaning can be stabilized, for example, in social institutions, but all meaning arises from a horizon of possible meanings. Using Luhmann's (1984) social systems theory and Rosen's (1985) theory of anticipatory systems, I submit equations for modeling the processing of meaning in inter-human communication. First, a self-referential system can use a model of itself for the anticipation. Under the condition of functional differentiation, the social system can be expected to entertain a set of models; each model can also contain a model of the other models. Two anticipatory mechanisms are then possible: one transversal between the models, and a longitudinal one providing the modeled systems with meaning from the perspective of hindsight. A system containing two anticipatory mechanisms can become hyper-incursive. Without making decisions, however, a hyper-incursive system would be overloaded with uncertainty. Under this pressure, informed decisions tend to replace the "natural preferences" of agents and an order of cultural expectations can increasingly be shaped

Les enseignants: à la recherche de leur profession

Les Enseignants: à la recherche de leur profession reprend les idées centrales présentées à la Conférence donnée, sur l'invitation de l'ATEE, au Séminaire de Barcelone, en 1993. Cet article est la reproduction du texte de support à la Conférence. Étant donné l'espace disponible, il n'a pas été possible de le travailler dans le sens d'une plus grande problématisation et élaboration théorique

Transgressive desires: new enterprising selves in the new capitalism

The growth of self-employed enterprise and the supposed ascendancy of the 'enterprising self' are commonly associated with the forces of flexibilization and individualization in contemporary work arrangements. What is driving these forces and their effects can be understood, in part, by examining what psychoanalytic theory would name desire. The focus here is upon the dynamics of desire among individuals who leave jobs to enter the growing ranks of the self-employed. Drawing from findings of a qualitative study of such new women entrepreneurs across Canada, changing concepts of the enterprising self are explored with specific attention to the relations between their desires and their conception of work. This article addresses three questions in particular: How is desire enmeshed in the development of enterprising selves? How do women come to desire work through self-employed enterprise, often entailing personal and economic pain? Do these desires configure possibilities for new alternatives in enterprise? The study findings suggest not only that contradictory desires are closely integrated with identity in the transition to enterprise, but also that some women's desires appear to form resistance to aspects of conventional models of business development. Through analysis informed by psychoanalytic theories of desire, these impulses are named 'transgressive desires' and their importance is demonstrated in their links to the new models of entrepreneurism that seem to be appearing among these women's enterprises

Introduction: Understanding Organizational Trust - Foundations, Constellations, and Issues of Operationalisation

This paper gives an overview of major issues in trust research, identifying common foundations and multiple constellations of organizational trust. In doing so, the paper also addresses important implications of theory development and empirical research. First, it provides a historical sketch of different approaches to understanding the phenomenon of trust, drawing upon various social science disciplines. Second, it discusses different levels of analysing trust in organizational settings. Third, it deals with important issues of operationalisation and measurement of organizational trust. Finally, it briefly summarises the contents of the five papers that follow this introductory paper in the special issue of JMP on "The micro-foundations of organizational trust". © Emerald Group Publishing Limited