Systembruddet som metode.pdf - Forskning

Michael Meier Sørensen
Systembruddet som metode – En transformation til ansvar og bevidsthed i senmoderniteten
Det Informationsvidenskabelige Akademi
The disruption of the system as a method
- A transformation to accountability and awareness in the late modern era
Abstract
This master thesis investigates the hypothesis of change as a disruption of routines and habits (the
system) in an attempt to operationalize a method of disrupting the system of Anthony Giddens’ late
modern individual. The purpose is to create a new (self-)awareness and accountability in the late
modern individual in order to ease its ability to accept change in a rapidly changing environment.
The disruption of the system is presented as a synthesis between Giddens and the theories of Julia
Kristeva’s ‘Powers of Horror’. The latter describes how people react when faced with the unknown
and the in-between: the abject. This synthesis makes it possible to regard change, specifically the
transformation of self, as something aesthetically horrifying and thus the late modern individual
becomes what Kristeva describes as the deject.
The master thesis then develops an overview of the processes in the disruption of the system by
including among others Jørgen Stigels presentation of the aesthetics of experience. The deject’s
construction of identity is investigated as a learning process, so similarities between the following
learning theories are compared to the disruption of the system: learning by expanding (incl. Batesons
double-bind theory), existential learning and transformative learning. The similarities are
summarized as a type of transcendental learning in the disruption of the dejects system.
With this in mind strategic reflexive conversation is evaluated as a method of controlling and
operationalizing the disruption of the system. The internalizing of scenario planning as a new system
for the deject is compared to similar ideas in Buddhist philosophy and finally presented as a possible
draft of the new system of awareness and accountability the thesis set out to create in the deject.
Due to the investigate purpose of this thesis, the ambitious nature of its subject and its many
theoretical implications, it does not attempt to give conclusive answers but instead provides a
theoretical and inspirational overview of surprising similarities and connections between the chosen
theories.
2/60