XV Congresso Brasileiro de Sociologia
Realizado de 26 a 29 de julho de 2011, em Curitiba-PR.

Current sociological theories of socialization cannot grasp the dynamics of the identity building processes in the nascent morphogenetic society. In fact, they are heavily biased by an orientation to the structural and cultural features characterizing Modern society, which do not hold in the new societal context. Building on the insights of the realist-morphogenetic approach and of relational social theory, the paper goes on to provide a reconceptualization of socialization as reflexive engagement, which meets the two basic challenges presented by the morphogenetic society for young people to develop a full personal and social identity: ‘the necessity of selection’ and the need ‘to shape a life’. This is therefore an account of how young people come to decide about their own set of concerns, prioritizing and dovetailing them, and investing their time and energies in a life project. Such an approach is also critical of all theories which reduce socialization to linguistically mediated relations, and articulates the relational condition of human subjects with respect to the natural, practical, and social order. It also maintains that the time of socialization by the internalization of habits or habitus is over.