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Anthony Giddens

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The Right Honourable Anthony Giddens, Baron Giddens (b. Edmonton, London, January 18, 1938) is a British sociologist who is renowned for his theory of structuration.

Giddens worked for many years at the University of Cambridge and was eventually promoted to a full professorship in 1987. In 1997 he became director of the London School of Economics until 2003 and a member of the Advisory Council of the Institute for Public Policy Research. He is an advisor to British Prime Minister Tony Blair; it was Giddens whose "third way" political approach has been Tony Blair's (and Bill Clinton's) guiding political idea. He was given a life peerage in June 2004, as Baron Giddens, of Southgate in the London Borough of Enfield and sits in the House of Lords for Labour.

Giddens' ambition is both to recast social theory and to re-examine our understanding of the development and trajectory of modernity. He gave the 1999 BBC Reith Lectures, on the topic of "The Runaway World", reflections on globalisation, available here.

The reflexive project of the self

Giddens says that in the post-traditional order, self-identity is not inherited or static; rather, it becomes a reflexive project – an endeavour that we continuously work and reflect on. We create, maintain and revise a set of biographical narratives – the story of who we are, and how we came to be where we are now.

On the transformation of intimacy

Giddens asserts that intimate relationships have become 'democratised', so that the bond between partners – even within a marriage – has little to do with external laws, regulations or social expectations, but is based on the internal understanding between two people – a trusting bond based on emotional communication. Where such a bond ceases to exist, modern society is generally happy for the relationship to be dissolved. Thus we have 'a democracy of the emotions in everyday life' (Giddens, 1999).

Introductory texts

An excellent starting-point is the book Conversations with Anthony Giddens (1998) in which he explains his work and the sociological principles which underpin it in clear, elegant language. Giddens' work on modernity and self-identity is clearly explained in the book Media Gender and Identity (2002) by David Gauntlett.

Select Bibliography

  • Giddens, Anthony (1971) Capitalism and Modern Social Theory. An Analysis of the writings of Marx, Durkheim and Max Weber. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
  • Giddens, Anthony (1976) New Rules of Sociological Method: a Positive Critique of interpretative Sociologies. London : Hutchinson.
  • Giddens, Anthony (1977) Studies in Social and Political Theory. London : Hutchinson.
  • Giddens, Anthony (1979) Central problems in Social Theory : Action, Structure and Contradiction in Social Analysis. London : Macmillan.
  • Giddens, Anthony (1981) A Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism. Vol. 1. Power, Property and the State. London : Macmillan.
  • Giddens, Anthony (1981) The Class Structure of the Advanced Societies. London : Hutchinson.
  • Giddens, Anthony (1982) Sociology: a Brief but Critical Introduction. London : Macmillan.
  • Giddens, Anthony (1982) Profiles and Critiques in Social Theory. London : Macmillan.
  • Giddens, Anthony & Mackenzie, Gavin (Eds.) (1982) Social Class and the Division of Labour. Essays in Honour of Ilya Neustadt. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
  • Giddens, Anthony (1984) The Constitution of Society. Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Cambridge : Polity Press.
  • Giddens, Anthony (1985) A Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism. Vol. 2. The Nation State and Violence. Cambridge : Polity Press.
  • Giddens, Anthony (1986) Durkheim. London : Fontana Modern Masters.
  • Giddens, Anthony (1990) The Consequences of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press.
  • Giddens, Anthony (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity. Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge: Polity Press.
  • Giddens, Anthony (1993) The Transformation of Intimacy. Love, Sexuality and Eroticism in Modern Societies. Cambridge : Polity Press.
  • Beck, Ulrich & Giddens, Anthony & Lash, Scott (1994) Reflexive Modernization. Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order. Cambridge : Polity Press.
  • Giddens, Anthony (1994) Beyond Left and Right — the Future of Radical Politics. Cambridge : Polity Press.
  • Giddens, Anthony (1996) In Defence of Sociology. Cambridge : Polity Press.
  • Giddens, Anthony (1996) Durkheim on Politics and the State. Cambridge : Polity Press.
  • Giddens, Anthony (1998) The Third Way. The Renewal of Social Democracy. Cambridge : Polity Press.
  • Hutton, Will & Giddens, Anthony (Eds.) (2000) On The Edge. Living with Global Capitalism. London : Vintage.
  • Giddens, Anthony (2000) The Third Way and Its Critics. Cambridge : Polity Press.
  • Giddens, Anthony (2000) Runaway World. London : Routledge.
  • Giddens, Anthony (2001) Sociology. Cambridge : Polity Press.
  • Giddens, Anthony (Ed.) (2001) The Global Third Way Debate. Cambridge : Polity Press.
  • Giddens, Anthony (2002) Where Now for New Labour? Cambridge : Polity Press.
  • Giddens, Anthony(Ed.) (2005) The New Egalitarianism Cambridge : Polity Press.


 

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