Politics In Contemporary Sociological Teory: Analisys Of The Concept Of Subpolitics In The Works Of Ulrich Beck And The Lifepolitics In Thought Of A. Giddens.

Uniwersytet w Wroclawski

Politics in
contemporary
sociological
theory
Analysis of the concept of "subpolitics" in
the works of Ulrich Beck and the concept of
"life politics" in the thought of Anthony
Giddens.

Ledis Irisa Celorio Torres
January 2012

Uniwersytet w Wroclawski 2
Politics in contemporary sociological theory

Summary
1. Introduction
2. Subpolitics
3. LifePolitics
4. Conclusion
5. Bibliography

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Politics in contemporary sociological theory

1. Introduction
Discussions of current sociology are not focused on social transformation,
the transition from traditional society to a modern society, but on the
characteristics of this new society, a fact apparent when we trace the work
of authors such as Bauman, Beck andGiddens, in which we can find
definitions of the new society: Liquid Society (Bauman), Society of Risk
(Beck), Postmodern Society (Giddens), definitions at some point, equitable
and in

many

other ways

also

conflicting.

This work is presented as a link in the works of Anthony Giddens and
Ulrich Beck, a single bond which sets out in, I hope clearly, two key
concepts in the thoughtof authors, the life politics and subpolitics,
respectively.

Both see the need for a new way to understand and deal with politics in
modern

societies,

societies raised

as

increasingly

complexed

with globalization and the state decisions, which lose weight according to
will of an individual and also as collective.
In the new society, "reflexive modernity" is understood aschanges in
society, industrial

produced

through surreptitious and

unplanned, the

individual can likewise question the decisions and state actions, decide how
far you are willing to accept the risks of this derived simply comply and
stop orders preset models, if these benefits are not outweighed by the
risks arising from these decisions.

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Politics incontemporary sociological theory

The individual becomes the most important player and politics back off
from

mere institutions

to pervade every

life. Politics becomes a way of life.

section

of human

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Politics in contemporary sociological theory

2. Subpolitics
After the Cold War, new political definitions would be necessary to
understand theways of

modernity

and countermodernity. All social and political

lexicon (the

mixture of Western capitalism, democracy and governance laws) had come
to be obsolete and, for this, Beck raises the need for a reinvention of
politics would

never

preach revolutions,

crises,

disintegration or

conspiracies, but negotiation, a redesign, a self-transformation of industrialsociety.
The world of political institutions (parliaments, political parties, unions,
etc...) Symbolically rich, in which he identifies with state policy, political
system

with political

the everyday world

careers full-time,

of practical

politics,

would coexist with
characterized

by an

individualization of conflicts and interests. Complex transformations were
takingplace at the level of individualization in conjunction with the
processes

of

globalization. Such

individualization is

not

equivalent to fragmentation, isolation or loneliness, but the processes in
which individuals must produce their biographies (roughly equivalent to
the

formulation

of Giddens

on reflexivity). In

this type

of individualization represents a kind ofpolitics that still coexists with the
previous one, but this does not necessarily imply overlapping dialogue
between the two ways of doing politics.
The area of subpolitics (understood as political subsystems) differs from
the policy (as defined in the official political system); it involves actors
who are outsiders in this last sphere (professional and occupational groups,
the technical...