Object or Person: The Difference Lies In the Constructed Identity

Abstract

The article examines the fundamental theory behind being a person rather than an object. Taking Rubin's (1988) and Jackson's (1998a) rejection of role theory as an intermediary between actor and action, the authors propose agency and its acknowledgement as an alternative. In support of their argument they draw on Plato, Foucault and Descartes, as well as data gathered using an ethnographic approach in a village in Scotland. They conclude that constructed identity, which develops from a person's agency and others’ acknowledgments of that agency, has greater explanatory power than the theories of role, occupational role, identity, occupational identity, and distributed self.

Key Words:

• Agency
• Self
• Role
• Occupational identity