Book Review: Investigating Subjectivity: Research on lived experience

This book is a much needed contribution to inter-disciplinary analysis. It is an attempt to address the narrowly individualistic conception of "subjectivity" from a more sociological perspective. The fulcrum which holds the book together is a concentration on the "sociology of emotions", which for the editors is an essential yet neglected element to the study of subjectivity. Some of the reasons why it has been neglected are all too familiar. Many research methodologies put inappropriate distance between researchers and their subjects in order to investigate phenomena "scientifically". Unfortunately those who have attempted to get closer in order to create a more human interaction have been labelled emotional exhibitionists. A second major reason appears to be that sociologists have preferred to separate emotional and cognitive processes and have consequently paid greater attention to the latter (the rational-actor model).

The book consists of a series of practical attempts to redress this imbalance by unravelling the complex manner in which emotion and cognition intertwine to form a stream of subjective experience. Methodologically, the writers are representative of a very broad church, although the single unifying factor is the commendable fact that none of them are embarrassed by their own subjectivity.

The first three chapters form part one which taken as a whole is concerned with the interpretation of existing texts. The first chapter is for filmgoers who enjoy engaging in 'analysis-paralysis'. It takes apart Ingmar Bergmans (1966) film "Persona" and aptly demonstrates why it is impossible to separate the film maker from the subject (emotionality). The next chapter uses inter-textual analysis to compare several texts depicting the same period in the life of Lillian Moller Gilbreth (1878-1972), a pioneer of scientific management. The author elegantly deconstructs the myths present in the text, largely founded on the notion that women ought to find happiness in domestic life as opposed to a professional career. It is a particularly effective chapter because it gets its point across without a sniff of sociological or deconstructionist jargon. The final chapter in this section builds upon this theme by showing how womens' subjectivity has been influenced by a major strand in fiction which insists upon using women in a romantic role as its main story line. In Sleeping Beauty for example, the woman is nothing until the prince kisses her.

As an immediate reaction against such blatant subjective bias, the authors in part two experiment with new ways of writing texts. Chapter 4 consists mainly of a dialogue between a man and a woman on the choices and emotional turmoil involved in having an abortion. The complexities involved are described in such a heart-rendering way. I was feeling distinct palpitations as I came to the end. Chapter 5 is an extremely insightful methodological exploration of the difficulties of being a participant observer in self-ethnographic research! Indeed, the author makes such a good job of transmitting the complications involved in doing research on herself as a dancer in a strip-bar setting, it left me feeling that her account is a little short on pure ethnographic research. Similarly, the author of Chapter 6 describes how her sociological representation of an interview as a poem has changed the way she perceives herself as "being in the world". My interpretation of her interpretation is that re-interpreting text in the form of poetry stands as an innovative addition to the sociologists interpretative kit-bag.

Part 3 goes deeper into a subjective sense of ourselves and explores ways in which self-perceptions are conditioned by the peculiarities of time, place and activity. In Chapter 7 the phenomena (which we all experience) of time which passes slowly, normally, or quickly is explained in terms of how cognition and emotion work together across a variety of situations. The author develops a model in which the key to understanding the passage of time is an individuals subjective involvement (cognitively and emotionally) with the situation. The sense of self is extended in the next chapter to include the idea that it is in part generated by locations or places. The author specifically puts forward the proposition that the natural world or "being-in-the-wild" provides a lens for experiencing a different understanding of self and reality. Most importantly, it is peoples beliefs about the differences between culture and nature which ultimately has the potential to stimulate such examination. The final chapter in this section is for escapists like me who like to travel. The author takes us on a journey into the world of tourists at the Grand Canyon in the U.S.A., who struggle to make their travel experiences meaningful in terms of their own identities. Evidence is presented demonstrating the kind of selves people find and lose whilst journeying and the paradoxical ways that real everyday life re-appears as people seek to escape in their journeys.

The final section of the book deals with the effects upon our subjective selves of personal and physical changes, historical events and transitions. More specifically, the first chapter looks at the impact of physiological, mundane ailments on the subsequent self-image of the peoples of San-Francisco after the 1989 earthquake. Throughout, it provides extracts of eye-witness accounts which are notable for the ways in which they impinge upon the popular mind-body debate. The author concludes by reminding us of the need for research which integrates knowledge of cognition, emotion and the lived body. The final chapter of the book discusses the evolution of the concept of the self since the early stages of the nineteenth century and how it has been influenced by both the material conditions of everyday life and different intellectual styles of explanation. It stands as a fitting reminder that to really understand lived experience, it has to be investigated against the complex backdrop of historical and cultural contexts.

In conclusion, every single chapter provides a fresh, readable insight into an area of analysis which ought to interest a wide variety of practitioners and academics across all of the social-sciences. Its success is in large part due to an emphasis upon actual lived experience, rather than a reliance upon dogmatic or prosaic text.

Stefan Wills