The moral self: Class, narcissism and the problem of do-it-yourself moralities

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Abstract

This article is a qualitative exploration of how contemporary morality is understood and constructed using Australian blog and interview data. A key finding is that the bloggers articulate morality as an actively created and autonomous do-it-yourself project that prioritises the subjective authority and authenticity of the self. While the blog stories do lend support to charges of narcissism, this is partly a product of bloggers misidentifying their own evaluative practices. In the interview accounts they tend to describe morality in subjectivist terms – I do what I believe/think/feel is right – but in their blogged accounts, they highlight a relational and responsive morality which attends to the Other and the situation. Further, the article highlights how the bloggers are producing a particular classed model of selfhood and moral reflexivity where they have access to the resources to self-tell as choosing and self-responsible subjects.

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APA

Hookway, N. (2018). The moral self: Class, narcissism and the problem of do-it-yourself moralities. Sociological Review, 66(1), 107–121. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038026117699540

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