technological diffusion (Gergen, 1991). Theorists of postmodern social
change argue that these tendencies have generated new challenges to self
and identity formation.
The first challenge involves the institutionalization of radical doubt.
Giddens (1991)arguesthat the Enlightenment values of modernity have
become a juggernaut in the postmodern world.^2 The postmodern mindset
insists that all knowledge takes the form of hypotheses: claims which may very well be
true, but which are in principle always open to revision and may have at some point to
be abandoned. (p. 3)He contends that the scientific principle of falsifiability, which was intended
for naturalistic inquiry, has become generalized as a social attitude. Even
the self-conceptthe cornerstone social realitybecomes a hypothesis,
one possibility among many within a context that offers a “puzzling diver-
sity of options” (p. 3). As the identities of social actors lose objectivity, they
must increasingly test and confirm them against alternate possibilities.
Identity confirmation takes the form of navigating a sea of “lifestyle
choices.” AsEwen and Ewen (1982)note,“today there is no fashion, only
fashions. No rules, only choices. Everyone can be anyone” (pp. 249251).
Questions that were once taken-for-granted, such as what to wear, what to
eat, and how to live, must be answered in day-to-day decisions. Few if any
institutional guides illuminate the process of making them, which leaves
young people engaged in projects of self-constitution that have no reference
point for evaluation.Giddens (1991)claims that day-to-day life in this
world becomes “the routine contemplation of counterfactuals” (p. 29). In
the ensuing “radical reflexivity,” many experience grave feelings of uncer-
tainty and insecurity with regard to identity.
The second challenge involves “social saturation.”Mead’s (1934)social-
psychological work on the self demonstrated that young people construct a
generalized sense of their community during socialization. Mead argued
that developing a generalized other was critical to self-definition, as matur-
ing individuals must reference the attitude of their community in order to
assess identity.Gergen (1991)has shown, however, that the postmodern
world overwhelms young people with social inputs and new information.
His research suggests that internalizing a generalized other has thus become
far more difficult in the globalized information age.
Today, stable institutions no longer produce trust in the continuity of
reality(Allan, 2006; Bauman, 1986; Gergen, 1991; Lemert, 1992;Turner,
1976 ). Modern travel, communication and information technology expose
young people to inconsistent values and disparate reference groups. This
164 PHILIP LEWIN