Identities Project
This project analysed current theories of individualisation and the fashion for self-representation on ‘reality’ television programmes.
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About the project
This project was funded by the ESRC and the research team included Prof Beverly Skeggs, Dr Helen Wood and Dr Nancy Thumim.
This project analysed current theories of individualisation and the fashion for self-representation on 鈥榬eality鈥� television programmes. We began the project with two questions. Has individualisation led to the demise of class, and secondly, but connected, has a shift in authority and legitimation occurred, where performing and displaying subjectivity in the public arena becomes a measure of a person鈥檚 value? We found that the reflexive self was widely promoted on television, but rather than signalling a detachment from class, these new techniques of individualisation actually strengthened and reproduced previous class (and gender and race) divisions in their encounters with audiences.
Key findings
- We outlined how 鈥榬eality鈥� television programmes extended the opening out of intimacy present in the broader cultural trend of 鈥榠ntimate citizenship鈥�.
- We mapped how the focus upon the individual鈥檚 accountability and the removal of classed histories in television representations parallels current policy changes on social exclusion.
- Textual analysis identifi ed the blending of melodramatic and documentary techniques to generate a new mode of making 鈥榦rdinary鈥� actors responsible for dramatic events.
- Our methodological design makes visible how discourses of moral value generate immediate 鈥榓ffective鈥� responses and distanced reflexivity that are converted into moral judgements about people on 鈥榬eality鈥� television.
- We make visible key textual moments (鈥榡udgement shots鈥�) that incite audience responses through the 鈥榯ext-in-action鈥� method.
- The empirical data reveal how a moral economy of personhood circulates amongst women who position themselves in relation to the success/failure visualised.
- We outline how cultural attachments to 鈥榬eality鈥� television contribute to the redrawing of discourses and performances of class through a focus upon moral value.