Book chapter
Dignity as Moral Motivation The Problem of Social Order Writ Small
Order on the Edge of Chaos, pp.268-285
Cambridge Univ Press
01/01/2015
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139924627.015
Abstract
How can we account for order while also recognizing agency and individuality? We propose dignity as a moral motivation for social personhood that represents a parsimonious theoretical - and ideally empirical - pivot for relating the agentic individual with social evaluations underlying the study of social order. A desire for dignity compels individuals to assert themselves socially while also contributing to the maintenance of social order. Because the bases of dignity are socially determined, an individual-level desire for dignity effectively serves to uphold social order. We draw on scholarship by Lamont, Goffman, Habermas, and others to identify a number of components, paradoxes and measurement issues relevant to the study of dignity as the locus of moralized individual selfhood. In closing, we cast the resurgent field of the sociology of morality as an ideal venue for advancing scholarship on human dignity.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Dignity as Moral Motivation The Problem of Social Order Writ Small
- Creators
- Steven Hitlin - Univ Iowa, Dept Sociol, Iowa City, IA 52242 USAMatthew A. Andersson - Yale Univ, Dept Sociol, New Haven, CT 06520 USA
- Contributors
- Edward J Lawler (Editor)Shane R Thye (Editor)Jeongkoo Yoon (Editor)
- Resource Type
- Book chapter
- Publication Details
- Order on the Edge of Chaos, pp.268-285
- Publisher
- Cambridge Univ Press; CAMBRIDGE
- DOI
- 10.1017/CBO9781139924627.015
- Number of pages
- 18
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 01/01/2015
- Academic Unit
- Sociology and Criminology
- Record Identifier
- 9984306343302771
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