„Wenn ich es nicht tue, dann macht's ein anderer“ – Subjektwerdungen und Verantwortung

Abstract

Abstract. Poststructuralist theory focuses largely on describing how and why subjects reproduce the social conditions they have internalised. This is a deconstruction of the central idea of the Enlightenment, the human capacity for autonomous action. At the same time, however, it also denies all individuals any responsibility and ultimately leads criticism into a crisis. Pragmatist philosophy offers the possibility of determining the role of the mind in processes of becoming a subject without abandoning the achievements of the poststructuralist concept of subjectification. The concept of transaction describes how actors constitute each other as subjects within social situations. The relationships that arise through such processes depend, among other things, on the personalities of those people involved. Accordingly, it is possible to identify the responsibility of individuals to govern their social relations and personality development. Since these aspects can only be determined in localised individual cases, this offers a particularly suitable starting point for geographical critic.