Cover -- Table of Contents -- Preface -- Part I: Materials and Arguments -- 1 - Everyday Discourse -- 2 - 'Choice' and 'Agency' in Social Theory -- 3 - A Brief Digression on Attribution -- 4 - On Individualism in Social Theory -- 5 - Transcending Individualism -- Part II: Speculations and Evaluations -- 6 - 'Agency' and 'Responsibility' in Sociological Theory -- 7 - Agency, Responsibility and New Human Biotechnologies -- 8 - Rational Agents in Differentiated Societies -- 9 - On the Fine Line Between Status and State -- Bibliography -- Index.

In this penetrating and assured book, one of the leading commentators in the field argues that social theory is moving in the wrong direction in its reflections on human freedom and autonomy. It has borrowed notions of 'agency' and 'choice' from everyday discourse, but increasingly it puts a misconceived individualistic gloss upon them. Against this, Barnes unequivocally identifies human beings as social agents in a profound sense, and emphasises the vital importance of their sociability. Notions of 'agency', 'freedom' and 'choice' have to be understood by reference to their role in communicative interaction; they are key components of the discourse through which human beings identify each other, and have effects upon each other, as soci.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.