Autonomy of Action in late Modernity - subjective Claims, institutional Basis and structural Dynamics of a normative guiding Principle

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Hartmut Rosa
• Subject Area: Sociological Theory
• Term: from 2012 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 229270944

The idea that subjects seek to autonomously live their lives and shall do so, has not only been a social promise but also a manifest imposition since the 18th century. Central institutions, in the course of their modernization, were redesigned in a way so that they are functional only if and when complemented by actors capable of autonomous agency. Contemporary social diagnoses currently converge in the observation that change in the claims of autonomy and in their chances of realization is taking place, but there is divergence on the question whether the scope for autonomy widens or narrows. This question is to be pursued specifically from the perspective of matching relations between the aspirations of subjects and functional conditions of modern institutions. Therefore it is examined (1) which claims to autonomy subjects raise, (2) which specific potentials for autonomy are functional prerequisites of modern institutions and finally (3) whether and how concretely the feasibility of autonomy is currently changing by social dynamics and what consequences for the institutional order follow from that. The processes of change will be reconstructed from the perspective of social relations of time, because temporality structures are inherent conditions of any form of autonomous practice. The aim is to explore synergies between autonomy claims and institutionalization processes as well as tensions and strains between them in a detailed way and to examine whether acceleratory dynamics as well as the flexibility constraints, which come along with them, pose problems of fit between these dimensions..

• DFG Programme: Research Grants