Adulthood holds a paradoxical position in sociology. It is a central category in so far as it provides the unarticulated background to a majority of social inquiries, but it is largely defined by default, as the taken-for-granted status of the social actor, and the middle stage of life. The meaning of adulthood is only rarely addressed directly. This thesis explores a way to fill this lacuna in sociology. An emerging lag between the prevalent normative ideals of adulthood and contemporary social trends is identified as the core of the 'prolonged adolescence thesis' - a dominant view in the social sciences and everyday discourse, which holds that many twenty and thirtysomethings are deferring or rejecting adulthood. My thesis argues that this approach is informed by a model of adulthood that is losing its empirical validity. I further argue that the practices of these young people are congruent with salient features of current social conditions. Drawing on theories of social recognition and the analysis of interview material, I hold that even though the form social recognition takes is subject to pluralisation, recognition of individuals' full membership in society is the meaningful constant of adulthood. I also propose that the redefinition of contemporary adulthood is marked by an intersubjectively constituted 'recognition deficit': commentators and social scientists often misunderstand young adults' practices, notwithstanding the structural rewards which these practices reap. At the same time, young adults themselves eschew the conventional markers of adult status. In so doing they forge their own, radically different, adulthood. Underpinned by an ideology of youthfulness, and subject to the fluid social relations of contemporary modernity, this adulthood eludes fixity. Its normative criteria flow from the everyday practices of individuals who, far from prolonging their adolescence, are the new adults of today.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/187929 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Blatterer, Harry, School of Sociology & Anthropology, UNSW |
| Publisher | Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Sociology and Anthropology |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Copyright Harry Blatterer, http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/copyright |
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