The Narrative Subject: Storytelling in

the Age of the Internet 1st ed. Edition

Christina Schachtner
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://ebookmass.com/product/the-narrative-subject-storytelling-in-the-age-of-the-int
ernet-1st-ed-edition-christina-schachtner/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

The Ethics of Storytelling: Narrative Hermeneutics,

History, and the Possible Hanna Meretoja

https://ebookmass.com/product/the-ethics-of-storytelling-
narrative-hermeneutics-history-and-the-possible-hanna-meretoja/

The Vanishing World of The Islandman: Narrative and

Nostalgia 1st ed. 2020 Edition Máiréad Nic Craith

https://ebookmass.com/product/the-vanishing-world-of-the-
islandman-narrative-and-nostalgia-1st-ed-2020-edition-mairead-
nic-craith/

Brand Storytelling in the Digital Age: Theories,

Practice and Application 1st ed. Edition S M A Moin

https://ebookmass.com/product/brand-storytelling-in-the-digital-
age-theories-practice-and-application-1st-ed-edition-s-m-a-moin/

Quantified Storytelling: A Narrative Analysis of

Metrics on Social Media 1st ed. Edition Alex
Georgakopoulou

https://ebookmass.com/product/quantified-storytelling-a-
narrative-analysis-of-metrics-on-social-media-1st-ed-edition-
alex-georgakopoulou/
The Autistic Subject: On the Threshold of Language 1st
ed. Edition Leon S. Brenner

https://ebookmass.com/product/the-autistic-subject-on-the-
threshold-of-language-1st-ed-edition-leon-s-brenner/

Antisocial Media: Crime-watching in the Internet Age

1st Edition Mark A. Wood (Auth.)

https://ebookmass.com/product/antisocial-media-crime-watching-in-
the-internet-age-1st-edition-mark-a-wood-auth/

Transmedia Storytelling and the Apocalypse 1st ed.

Edition Stephen Joyce

https://ebookmass.com/product/transmedia-storytelling-and-the-
apocalypse-1st-ed-edition-stephen-joyce/

Storytelling in Participatory Arts with Young People:

The Gaps in the Story 1st ed. Edition Catherine
Heinemeyer

https://ebookmass.com/product/storytelling-in-participatory-arts-
with-young-people-the-gaps-in-the-story-1st-ed-edition-catherine-
heinemeyer/

Democracy Beyond Elections: Government Accountability

in the Media Age 1st ed. 2020 Edition Gergana Dimova

https://ebookmass.com/product/democracy-beyond-elections-
government-accountability-in-the-media-age-1st-ed-2020-edition-
gergana-dimova/
The Narrative Subject
Storytelling in the Age of
the Internet

Christina Schachtner
The Narrative Subject
 Christina Schachtner

The Narrative Subject

Storytelling in the Age of the Internet
Christina Schachtner
Institute of Media and Communications
University of Klagenfurt
Klagenfurt, Austria

First published in German as “Das narrative Subjekt. Erzählen im Zeitalter des Internets.”
Copyright for the German edition: 2016, transcript: Bielefeld, Germany
Translated from the German by Helen Heaney

ISBN 978-3-030-51188-3    ISBN 978-3-030-51189-0 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51189-0

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2020. This book is an open access
publication.
Open Access This book is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits
use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as
you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the
Creative Commons licence and indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this book are included in the book’s Creative
Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not
included in the book’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by
statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly
from the copyright holder.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the
publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to
the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made.
The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and
institutional affiliations.

Cover illustration: andipantz / gettyimages

Cover design: eStudioCalamar

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
 Preface

Network actors and bloggers from various countries in the Arab world and
Europe as well as from the USA provided the empirical basis for this book
with their narratives in words and images. Thanks to their willingness to
participate in the study “Communicative Publics in Cyberspace,” it was
possible to propound a typology of narrations which can be read as time
stamps, illustrating what is on the minds of adolescents and young adults
in different parts of the world today. I would like to thank them for their
readiness to talk. My thanks also go to the researchers in my team at the
University of Klagenfurt, Nicole Duller, Katja Langeland, Katja Ošljak,
and Heidrun Stückler, who conducted the interviews with great
commitment.
The translation of the book into English was accompanied by Doris
Haslinger (FWF) and Sabina Abdel-Kader (FWF) as they paved the admin-
istrative way for support by the Austrian Science Fund. With their profes-
sional advice and much empathy, Lucy Batrouney, Mala Sanghera-Warren,
and Bryony Burns from Palgrave Macmillan were very helpful in shep-
herding this book through the various stages of publication in getting the
book published.
I would particularly like to thank the translator, Helen Heaney, for our
intensive cooperation on the book, during which I learnt a lot about the
art of translating and about wrestling with words and their meanings.

Klagenfurt, Austria Christina Schachtner

2020

v
 Acknowledgements

The research results were supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
I 237-617.
This book has been published with the support of the Austrian Science
Fund (FWF) Pub 577-Z32. The author also acknowledges the financial
support of the Faculty of Cultural Studies at the University of Klagenfurt
and the publishing fund of the University of Klagenfurt.

vii
 Contents

1 Introduction  1
1.1 The Sociocultural Significance of Narrating  3
1.2 The Subject-Theoretical Approach  4
1.3 Empirical Analysis  8
1.3.1 Methodology  8
1.3.2 Sample 12
1.3.3 Research Methods 13
1.4 Structure of the Book 16
1.5 Innovative Aspects 19
1.6 Major Themes 21
References 23

2 Storytelling as a Cultural Practice and Life Form 29

2.1 Contexts of Storytelling 34
2.1.1 Time 34
2.1.2 Space 41
2.2 The Functions of Narrating 51
2.2.1 Narrating as a Technology of Self-construction 51
2.2.2 Narrating Opening Up to the You 60
2.3 Narrating as a Technology of Subjection and Enablement 67
References 70

ix
x Contents

3 The Narrative Space of the Internet 77

3.1 The Sociocultural Charge of Media 78
3.2 The Structural Characteristics of Digital Media 82
3.2.1 Interconnectedness 82
3.2.2 Interactivity 88
3.2.3 Globality 92
3.2.4 Multimediality 96
3.2.5 Virtuality107
References118

4 The Net Generation’s Stories: A Typology125

4.1 Narrations About Interconnectedness128
4.1.1 Showing and Exchanging128
4.1.2 Seeing and Being Seen130
4.1.3 Sharing132
4.2 Self-Staging Narrations134
4.2.1 The Adored Star134
4.2.2 Role Model and Seeker in One136
4.2.3 The Counter-Model138
4.3 Stories About Supplying and Selling142
4.3.1 Objects and Designer Products on Offer142
4.3.2 Participatory Projects on Offer145
4.4 Narrations About Managing Boundaries147
4.4.1 Managing Boundaries as an Answer to
Sociocultural Borders148
4.4.2 Managing Boundaries as an Individual Need152
4.5 Transformation Narrations158
4.5.1 The Goal-Oriented Actors158
4.5.2 The Role Player163
4.6 Stories About Setting Out and Breaking Away169
4.6.1 Setting Out and Breaking Away as a Biographical
Project169
4.6.2 Setting Out and Breaking Away as a Political
Project176
References182
 Contents  xi

5 A Theoretical Postscript: Time, Space, the Self and the

You, and Digital Media as Narrative Constructions185
5.1 Time Stamps187
5.1.1 “I wanted to play football with the boys but …”:
Biographical Time187
5.1.2 “It’s like a political awakening …”: Sociocultural
Time192
5.2 Spatial Relationships194
5.2.1 Experiencing and Managing Boundaries195
5.2.2 Spatial Crossings198
5.2.3 Creating and Configuring Spaces200
5.3 Representations of the Self201
5.3.1 Standardization and Experimentation202
5.3.2 Orientation203
5.3.3 Division Versus Continuity205
5.4 Connections with the You208
5.4.1 Wrestling for the Other’s Attention208
5.4.2 World Communication210
5.5 Narrators, Narratives, Media: Cornerstones of Interplay212
5.5.1 No End in Sight212
5.5.2 The Upswing of the Image214
5.5.3 Transmedia217
References220

6 Narrating as an Answer to Sociocultural Challenges225

6.1 Detraditionalization226
6.2 Pluralization229
6.3 The Blurring of Borders233
6.4 Individualization236
6.5 Global Flows, Crossovers, and Hybridity239
6.6 Round-up244
References245
xii Contents

7 Narrative Production of Culture249

7.1 Culture and Its Designers249
7.2 The Future of Narrating in Translation251
7.2.1 Narrating and Translating252
7.2.2 The Translational Turn255
7.3 Media, Culture, and Narrative Translationality259
References264

Index267
 About the Author

Christina Schachtner, DDr. is professor of media studies at the

University of Klagenfurt, Austria, and is particularly interested in the
interrelations between people and digital technology. She has written on
subject construction, the network society, gender and media, social move-
ments in the digital age, and virtual spaces for playing and learning. She is
currently working on the research project ‘Transnational Life: Migration
and Mediatization’.

xiii
 List of Figures

Fig. 4.1 Ready to receive and transmit (network actor, m, 26, Saudi
Arabia)129
Fig. 4.2 The absolute super cool guy (network actor, m, 29, Austria) 135
Fig. 4.3 The blogger as a candy seller (blogger, m, 24, Switzerland) 143
Fig. 4.4 Retreat into the private amidst an anonymous public (network
actor, f, 19, Austria) 157
Fig. 4.5 On the lookout for the right thing (network actor, f, 12,
Germany)165
Fig. 4.6 Digitally assisted global communication (network actor, m, 21,
USA)175
Fig. 5.1 Standardization and experimentation (blogger, f, 24, Germany) 204
Fig. 5.2 The two-part portrait (blogger, f, 22, Germany) 206
Fig. 6.1 Communicating, working, and learning in overlapping spaces
(network actor, m, 22, Austria) 231

xv
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

The idea behind this book was inspired by the findings of the study
“Communicative Publics in Cyberspace”1 in which our research interest
focused both on the communicative practices which young network actors
and bloggers2 between the ages of 11 and 32 engaged in online and on the
subject constructions which were created as part of these practices. In the
study, the process of subjectification, in which the subjects constructed
themselves or were constructed as such under specific conditions created
by the use of media technology (Reckwitz, 2008, p. 9) lay at the heart of
the empirical analysis. One of the main findings was that the process of
subjectification evolved between the conflicting priorities of autonomy
and heteronomy for the adolescents and young adults participating in the
study. While analysing the data, I soon gained the impression that the
empirical sources, interviews, and visualizations did not only provide
information on the communicative practices and subject constructions

1
The study was part of a larger project on Subject Constructions and Digital Culture car-
ried out by research teams from the universities of Klagenfurt, Hamburg-Harburg, Bremen,
and Münster. The members of Klagenfurt’s research team were Nicole Duller, Katja
Langeland, Katja Ošljak, Christina Schachtner, and Heidrun Stückler. The project was
financed by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and the VW Foundation. The main findings
are presented in Schachtner and Duller (2014).
2
The term network actors refers to those who participate in various communicative activi-
ties in the internet, including blogging. The term bloggers is used when the narrators con-
cerned primarily refer to themselves as bloggers and their narrative-based practices in the
internet primarily consist of blogging.

© The Author(s) 2020 1

C. Schachtner, The Narrative Subject,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51189-0_1
2 C. SCHACHTNER

but, on top of that, also told stories which related both to the internet as
a life base and the everyday realities beyond the internet. These stories
addressed not only the here and now but also the yesterday and tomorrow,
putting the practices and subject constructions which we had identified in
an overarching narrative context.
The narratives which emerged from our data then became the research
interest in my secondary analysis of the interviews and visualizations, con-
firming my initial impressions and rapidly growing into a new research
question: What stories do internet-savvy adolescents and young adults
from different parts of the world tell in this day and age? The transnational
perspective was possible because network actors and bloggers from six
countries in Europe, four Arab countries, and the USA had been included
in the initial study, accommodating the intention of analysing sociocul-
tural transformation as one context of the stories which was playing out
not only within individual nations but also on the global stage.
The secondary analysis was based on the assumption of the “hermeneu-
tic circle”3 (Struve, 2013, p. 22), which means that the reading of a text
never comes to an end. I do not wish to restrict the assumption of multiple
stages of evaluation to empirical data which were collected as part of an
understanding-interpretative approach to research. Nevertheless, texts
produced in a research context are especially suited to a primary, second-
ary, and tertiary analysis because of the multiple layers of meaning they
represent. Barney Glaser, who, together with Anselm Strauss, developed
Grounded Theory, already pointed to the possibility of picking up on the
research process time and again: “The research in progress is always there
waiting to move forward when the researcher can return to it” (Glaser,
1998, p. 15). What Roland Barthes defined as a characteristic of objects is
also true of texts; they have more than one meaning (1988, pp. 182–183).
To a certain extent, that dethrones narrator and researcher alike because
both have to reckon with the text allowing further meanings and interpre-
tations (Struve, 2013, p. 22) going beyond what the narrator intended
and the researcher interpreted.

3
All quotations from German publications were translated into English for this book.
 1 INTRODUCTION 3

1.1   The Sociocultural Significance of Narrating

In line with Kurt Ranke (1955), Albrecht Lehmann proposed that it is a
basic human need “when describing the world to understand, interpret,
and talk about it in all of its dimensions” (2011, p. 28). This implies that
the world is predetermined for us, that we are born into a world which
gives rise to narratives. The world is, as Michael von Engelhardt writes, a
product of narrating and, at the same time, through narrating, it under-
goes a process of further development (2011, p. 39).
In narrating, perceptions and what we have seen or heard take shape as
experiences. In other words, experiences of the world do not befall us; we
create them, we integrate them in existing stories, or we make new stories
out of them (Wolff, 2012, p. 183). The dynamics of society see to it that
storytelling does not end but develops as an unfinished process in which
causes are identified, links are forged, predictions are risked, and the
exceptional is linked with the ordinary (Bruner, 1990, p. 47). Narrative
practices relate to existing social orders, interpreting them, modifying
them, and refining them. As we encounter them in narrative, subjective
processes of experiencing and doing can only be grasped in relation to
their specific socio-historical nature according to Heiner Keupp (2015,
p. 31). Lehmann maintains that every narrative situation is embedded in
universal life circumstances (2011, p. 29). Thus an individual’s life is inex-
tricably interlocked with social structures but without being at their mercy.
In times of sociocultural upheaval, such as we are currently experienc-
ing, the challenge is intensified to process and digest observations, events,
and messages in narrative form. Subjects are confronted with social con-
tradictions, tensions, and conflicts which are crying out for solutions. As
Keupp observed, ideas are formulated relating to the fundamental incom-
patibility of subjective desires and social imperatives (2015, p. 7).
Questions are asked about negotiations between culture, society, and the
subject (2015, p. 7). The ambivalences we perceive do not invite us to
stand firm; rather they give rise to “a spur to speech, an urge to utterance,
a way of working-through what is contradictory and unresolved” (Bhabha,
2012a, pp. 51–52).
As this sociocultural unrest is global in nature, narratives are being trig-
gered all over the world in which people try to interpret the upheavals they
are witnessing and attempt to embed themselves in new social structures
in the very stories they tell. The narratives spring from different cultural
backgrounds and biographies, which means that they do not necessarily
4 C. SCHACHTNER

form a harmonious whole. But people cannot keep out of each other’s way
in an increasingly transnational world. Where intercultural encounters
take place and different narratives collide, “cultural translation”
(Bachmann-Medick, 2016, p. 132) is essential, but it does not always suc-
ceed. Misunderstandings, conflicts, and violence are highly likely when
apparently irreconcilable narratives collide. And yet these narratives are
almost all we have as a means of understanding each other, and their pros-
pects of success will increase when they are combined with a global under-
standing of ethics, which, however, still has to be developed on the basis
of human rights.

1.2   The Subject-Theoretical Approach

A subject-theoretical approach underlies both the theoretical and empiri-
cal parts of this book, which means that the subject is the starting and
reference point for the empirical analysis and the theoretical reflection.
The decision to take this approach was based on the fact that narratives
start off with individual people (Lehmann, 2011, p. 31). It is individuals
who process their experiences in narrative form, who tell Others4 about
them, who exchange stories with Others, and who continue and change
their narratives as part of this exchange.
Individuals construct themselves as subjects because they can make
themselves the objects of their narratives by virtue of their reflexive prac-
tice. Narrating gives them the opportunity to develop a self-concept, to
portray themselves, to make themselves perceptible to Others, to bridge
the gap between themselves and their social surroundings, and in doing so
they participate in the construction and maintenance of a common socio-
cultural life-world (von Engelhardt, 2011, p. 39). These comments already
imply a certain concept of the subject which differs from depictions of the
subject in which the subject is an instance independent of Others in which
it finds the basis for its knowing and doing in itself, and in itself alone
(Reckwitz, 2008, p. 12). The idea of the autonomous subject is bound to
the notion of occidental modernity, which conceptualized the subject as
sensible, as identical to itself, as the sovereign of its life (Bilden, 2012,
p. 184), and which understood itself as a social formation that pursued the

4
In this book the term “the Other” refers to those who are indispensable for subject con-
struction, from the perspective of symbolic interactionism, amongst others. As such the term
refers to specific Others, which is why it is capitalized.
 1 INTRODUCTION 5

emancipation of the subject (Reckwitz, 2008, p. 12). This concept of the

subject has been criticized by many from a feminist and post-structuralist
perspective along the lines that the classical concept of the subject is a
historical product and that subjectivity is constituted in fields of power
which are characterized by social inequality (see, for example, Bilden,
2012, p. 185; Reckwitz, 2008, p. 12).
This book follows a subject-theoretical approach, which assumes a dual
structure for the subject as described, albeit with different accents and
distinctions, by Helga Bilden (2012), Judith Butler (2005), George
H. Mead (1934), Käte Meyer-Drawe (1990), and Andreas Reckwitz
(2006, 2008).5 It is an approach that contrasts with both “individualistic
doctrines, which are too preoccupied with praising the rights of the I” and
those “schools of thought to which individualism is opposed” that favour
“collective, plural pronouns [as in] traditional communism [or] the femi-
nism of sisterhood” (Cavarero, 2000, p. 90) in which, as Butler under-
lines, “the we is always positive, the plural you … is a possibly ally … the I
is unseemly” (Cavarero, 2000, pp. 90–91 quoted in Butler, 2005, p. 32).
The assumption of a dual structure, with the subject being simultane-
ously autonomous and heteronomous, is part of the etymology of the
word. The term subject goes back to classical Latin subiectum, which
means a person ruled by a monarch or sovereign state. In the modern era,
its meaning changed, now being related to the recognizing self and refer-
ring to the self-determining self-consciousness. The Enlightenment, too,
focused on the recognitional competence of the subject when calling upon
it to free itself from its immaturity and its “inability to use [its] under-
standing without guidance from another” (Kant, 1784/1983, p. 41).
This appeal was addressed to the subject as a whole, considering it primar-
ily, however, as a rational being, even though, following Immanuel Kant,
a philosopher central to the Enlightenment, the importance of experience
for subject construction cannot be denied (Beer, 2014, p. 224). Reckwitz
considers the two factors of autonomy and subjection as two sides of the
self, which is prompted to “model itself as a rational, reflexive, socially
oriented, moral, expressive, boundary-crossing instance” (2006, p. 10) in
the process of its subjectification. His analysis of the subject focuses both
on the discourses in which forms of the subject are represented and prob-
lematized and on the subjectifying potential of everyday practices (2008,

5
At this point I will elaborate on only some of the approaches; later on, the discussion will
be taken up again and complemented by the positions of other authors.
6 C. SCHACHTNER

p. 9). These practices include the narrative acts which are at the heart of
this book.
In the process of subjectification, Reckwitz posits that the subject
becomes an “allegedly autonomous” instance by subjecting itself to the
criterion of autonomy (2008, p. 14). The formulation itself emphasizes
that the autonomy of the subject is only apparent, which understandably
leads Reckwitz to ask the following question: “Which codes, bodily rou-
tines, and preferred structures do individuals have to incorporate in them-
selves in their particular historical-cultural context in order to become an
attributable ‘subject’ recognized by themselves and others?” This percep-
tion of the subject means that it does everything in order to satisfy the
requirements of these codes.
As Butler sees it, a greater autonomy to act is accorded to the subject
by Michel Foucault in his later works, particularly in his concept of
“Technologies of the Self ” (1988). Although both Foucault and Butler
start from the premise that there is “no ‘I’ that is not implicated in a set of
conditioning moral norms, which, being norms, have a social character”
(Butler, 2005, p. 7), they also want to demonstrate that the subject is
equipped with the power to shape these norms (Butler, 2003, p. 9). The
commonly posed question “What should I do?” presupposes an ‘I’ and
the possibility of ‘acting’, which indicates the existence of a subject capa-
ble of self-reflection (2003, p. 9). In the stories told by the network actors
and bloggers, this question turns up time and again, triggered by external
threats or also by newly gained insights into the impact of media-technical
artefacts. It creates the opportunity to develop a critical perspective on
norms; nonetheless the subject is not “fully free to disregard the norm. …
If there is an operation of agency or, indeed, freedom in this struggle, it
takes place in the context of an enabling and limiting field of constraint”
(Butler, 2005, p. 19).
Helga Bilden, who shares the notion of a dual structure and, like Butler
and Foucault, considers the subject to be capable of challenging norms,
goes one step further in her formulation of the notion of a subject. She
emphasizes the processuality of becoming a subject when she rejects the
idea of a “complete subject” in favour of “an ensemble which is repeatedly
negotiated and constituted afresh” (2012, p. 188), an idea which had
already been taken up by Silvia Pritsch (2008, p. 127). Subjectivity, Bilden
continues, is negotiated and constituted in the stories which Others tell
about us and which we tell ourselves. Bilden stresses that narrations can
contribute to uniting heterogeneous elements (2012, p. 221), a process
 1 INTRODUCTION 7

which many of the stories presented in this book certainly bear witness to,
for example when they are about formulating concepts of democracy
within authoritarian societies or redefining the relationship between the
public and the private.
Bilden also highlights the subject’s diversity of voices (2012, p. 296),
developed in response to the plurality that is a core characteristic of con-
temporary societies. She releases the notion of the subject from the
requirement that the subject should generate itself as a harmonious entity,
allowing it instead to be contradictory and multifaceted. It should not be
forgotten, however, that a diversity of voices can also be problematic, for
example when they are part of a multiple personality disorder, often
brought about by traumatic experiences which can only be tolerated by
the person concerned splitting the mind into multiple, separate, non-­
communicating identities (2012, pp. 194–195). When acknowledged by
the subject, a diversity of voices without such a traumatic backdrop could,
in contrast, increase the capacity to deal with messy or ambiguous situa-
tions or to react to cultural differences in a more open and tolerant man-
ner, understanding them as being bound to other cultural locations (2012,
pp. 222ff.).
Finally, the notion of the subject as developed by Bilden includes not
only the sociocultural world as a stimulating-to-constitutive factor of sub-
jectivity but also the world of things, here, primarily, the world of digital
media. From the moment they are born, people are faced with a world of
things “which they encounter in a friendly or hostile fashion, which are
enticing, motivating, terrifying” (Schachtner, 2014, p. 9), and which, as
Kurt Lewin already established in the 1920s, have a particular “demand
character” for the individual (1926/1982, p. 64). Things prompt infants
to interact with them, as the paediatrician and psychoanalyst Donald
W. Winnicott observed (1971, pp. 4ff.); they encourage infants to reach
for them, to squeeze them, to throw them away, and to get them back. In
this interaction game, they discover the difference between inner and
external reality, between the I and the Other; and so the foundations for
subjectification are laid. Things retain their demand character for the sub-
ject for a lifetime. Time and again they stimulate so-called interaction
games anew (Lorenzer, 1981, pp. 155ff.); they become object, instru-
ment, and space for narrative practices. But that is not all: They also influ-
ence these practices alongside the narrative forms and contents they
produce. How could it be different? After all, things materialize sociocul-
tural codes which trigger a certain way of thinking and acting when
8 C. SCHACHTNER

interacting with them. A chair, for example, makes us sit in a certain way,
a ball forces us to make specific physical movements in certain directions,
and a blog compels bloggers to write and present themselves in a certain
way. Nowadays, the digital media play a dominant role across the globe in
the world of things. Following in the footsteps of images, they have
become powerful engines for changing subjectivity (Bilden, 2012,
pp. 206ff.). This book also deals with this proposition.

1.3   Empirical Analysis

Because the results of the empirical study which form the core of this book
are influenced not only by my theoretical perspectives but also by my
methodological approach and research methods, the following section is
devoted to a presentation and discussion of issues relating to my method-
ology and methods.

1.3.1  Methodology
Methodologically, this book is rooted in the tradition of an understanding-­
interpretative approach to social research which makes it possible to grasp
subjective experiences and actions in their specific socio-historical nature
(Keupp, 2015, p. 31). This is precisely the interest which lies behind my
research when I ask what stories internet-savvy adolescents and young
adults from various parts of the world recount in this day and age. This
question also includes an interest in “the way in which historical and social
conditions affect the lives of individuals interacting with each other,” to
use Rainer Winter’s words (2014, p. 125). The possibility of an under-
standing approach arises from the fact that, in their everyday lives, indi-
viduals always face and interpret each other and the world (Soeffner, 2014,
p. 35). No matter how preconfigured social situations are, in their every-
day lives, individuals must define them anew for themselves and they do
so, according to Hitzler, with the help of “knowledge-guided and
knowledge-­generating processes” (2014, p. 61). If social research aims to
understand these processes, it has to be involved in reconstructing mean-
ing (2014, p. 61). With reference to Alfred Schutz, Hitzler proposes that
meaning constitutes itself in “conscious acts which take a stand” (2014,
p. 64). This definition places meaning on a conscious and rational level,
ignoring the fact that it can also have a tacit dimension (Polanyi, 1966)
and that, alongside cognition, meaning also includes sensory and
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
Sure. Sure he would. This was Wednesday, a Rec. night. Tonight,
after supper, Belle and her Three Graces would make a night round.
"Personal service"—if you had the credits. He had the credits. He'd
take a fall—hell, a couple, why not—out of old Belle herself. Not that
Belle looked any better than the others, but at least she put a little
life into it. A couple of hours with Belle, twelve credits; a bottle, four
more. All right, he had them. Tonight he was really going to make a
night of it. Yeah.
Yeah?
Yeah. And the next day, Thursday, all day ... yeah! His head ached,
stomach churned; that burning back of the eye-balls; the awful, tight-
drawn humming of nerves. And on just one bottle? God, that acid-
burn gin. No, old Belle had been in rare form and he got two bottles
instead of one. But even so ... must be that stew the night before. Oh
death!
He fought the day, his work, all day. He missed quota. The fingers
were just a blistering mist before his eyes. He drank water and
gagged on it. He paced his cell. He sweated. God! Could a man live
like this?
"Boy! Say there, boy. Look alive, eh?"
Mr. Boswell, the old electronic shyster. It was afternoon, finally, of the
everlasting, miserable day. Jay 7 looked up to watch sullenly as, the
usual afterthought, Mr. Boswell rolled on off to plug in his cord; and
rolled back. Made a noise, a harrumph-type, throat clearing,
introductory noise. Mr. Boswell had no throat but he was a believer in
certain niceties, form and procedure.
"Well now, boy. Let me see, where are we? Oh yes. Bring you up to
date. My latest petition for further continuance pending a review of
the transcr...."

Suddenly, it was all too much. Jay 7 was mad, furious. He, in a word,
blew his gin-throbbing top. He was on his feet, shaking hands, white-
knuckled, gripping bars. "Goddamnit!" he shouted, "Goddamnit, you
rotten old fraud, I've had enough, you hear me? I got a by-God-
bellyfull enough."

Suddenly, it was all too much. Jay 7 was furious with the old
electronic shyster. He was on his feet, shaking hands, white
knuckled, gripping bars.

"Oh?" inquired Mr. Boswell, mildly. "Enough is enough, eh? But how
can we be sure that alternatives...."
"All right, all right." Jay 7 wouldn't get anything out of him by
shouting, he knew that. He was still tense and shaking but he
managed to lower his voice to a tense, confidential whisper of
appeal. "But I can't take much more of this. And the uncertainty. I've
got to know. How much longer, huh? Please, please, Mr. Boswell,
man to man ... when will the trial come? How much longer before we
go to court, I—we—get my acquital, huh? Man to man, when can I
walk out of here a free man?"
"Man to man? You are just a boy, boy. Show it all the time. Man to
man? Well ... perhaps it is time you did grow up a bit. So. You want
to know when you will leave here a free man? I'll tell you. Never."
"Never?!?"

"Never. Hasn't that been obvious from the start? Look. You know the
charges, the evidence against you. In your actions, in your mind,
either way you are guilty, boy. Regardless of the degree, you are
guilty. The evidence is undeniable. You know better than I how guilty
you are."
"No!"
"You are so eager to leave here? Why?"
"Just to get out. To be free. Isn't that enough?"
"Nonsense, lad; nonsense. You are doing fine here, just fine. Look at
it this way. You are here for the common good, yours and society's,
in protective custody. You have made rather a nice adjustment. Quite
nice, really. To accept it gracefully, gratefully, is best. And, with me as
your counsel, there is no reason why we cannot hope to continue
your case indefinitely—for years, for decades. Why...."
"No! No, they can't, you can't do that to me." A highly unoriginal
protest. Mr. Boswell made a mild sound of disapproval. At such times
he regretted the limitations of construction that did not permit him a
shake of the head.
"Years? Decades? No! I can't stand it; I can't, I won't. I'll find a way
out. I'll make a way."
"Suicide? Oh now, my boy, please. To take your own life? A
shameful thing. And not at all fair to my firm."
"No, not suicide. I—I'll break out. Damn you, I will. I'll grab your
damned wire—I can reach it from here; I'll pull your plug. You'll have
to take me out of here or I'll let your juice run out and you'll die.
Boswell, you're going to hide me under that machinery of yours and
take me out."
"Oh? But my boy—what then?"
"Then I'll be out, that's what."
"Then you will be out. Out of here; out in the street; out of protective
custody; outside the law. You would be alone then, lad; alone with
your guilt, cast out, apart from society and the sound, stable order
you find here. And would not every decent man's hand be against
you? Think, my boy, what that means. Could you face it?" During
these remarks, as Jay 7 clung, hot-eyed and shaking to the bars, Mr.
Boswell had backed prudently well away, out of reach from the cell
door.
"Yes! I don't care. To hell with you; to hell with all of them. I've got to
get out of here. Come back, you coward. I tell you I've got to get out,
out, out!"
Mr. Boswell backed across the corridor and pulled his plug from the
socket. The wire rolled back neatly on the spool. "Time—no more
time; other clients." He peered myopically through thick lenses back
toward the cell. "Please, lad—it pains me to hear you talk so wildly."
"I've got to get out, you hear? Out!"

"Well, my boy, if it has become such a phobia with you and you feel
you have got to do so foolish a thing ... why don't you just walk out?"
"Walk out? What in hell are you talking about? How can I walk out of
this cell?"
"Now, now, boy. You are only in protective custody, to protect you
from yourself, from an outraged society, you understand. That cell
isn't locked. Never has been. You know that."
"That's a lie!" The man, Jay 7, threw himself against the bars,
pressed against them, every muscle straining. "It's locked, locked.
You can see. It won't open."
"Now, now," said Mr. Boswell again, starting to swing around on his
wheels, "that door opens inward. You get your food through it, your
work; the other—ah—amenities, girls ... eh? Nobody ever unlocks
that door, isn't that right? They all just push it open. Right? Eh? It
opens in."
"You lie. It's a damned, rotten, filthy lie." He was yelling, shaking,
rattling the door; pushing at the door.
"Easy, boy," said Mr. Boswell, "easy now. If you say so ... perhaps
you are right after all. So. We adjust, eh? See you Sunday. There
are some details, questions of improper punctuation in the transcript
of your involuntary confession we must go over; something we can
use in the next preliminary hearing. Eh? Good night, boy." Mr.
Boswell rolled off, smoothly as always, down the corridor.
Jay 7 quit pushing then, all at once and completely, and hung limply,
two hands circling two solid bars, leaning heavily against the cell
door. He sobbed once and then sniffed. He felt thirsty. So ... well, he
had his cup, his own faucet. He could get a nice, cold drink of water
any time he wanted it. He sniffed again and turned away from the
barred door.
THE END
 *** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A PRISON
MAKE ***

Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will
be renamed.

Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S.

copyright law means that no one owns a United States copyright in
these works, so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it
in the United States without permission and without paying copyright
royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part of
this license, apply to copying and distributing Project Gutenberg™
electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ concept
and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and
may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following the
terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use of
the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for
copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very
easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as
creation of derivative works, reports, performances and research.
Project Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given
away—you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with
eBooks not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject
to the trademark license, especially commercial redistribution.

START: FULL LICENSE

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
 PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK

To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free

distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work (or
any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project
Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
Project Gutenberg™ License available with this file or online at
www.gutenberg.org/license.

Section 1. General Terms of Use and

Redistributing Project Gutenberg™
electronic works
1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™
electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree
to and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in your
possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
Project Gutenberg™ electronic work and you do not agree to be
bound by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from
the person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in
paragraph 1.E.8.

1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be

used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people
who agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a
few things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic
works even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.
See paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with
Project Gutenberg™ electronic works if you follow the terms of this
agreement and help preserve free future access to Project
Gutenberg™ electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the
Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the
collection of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the
individual works in the collection are in the public domain in the
United States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in
the United States and you are located in the United States, we do
not claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing,
performing, displaying or creating derivative works based on the
work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of
course, we hope that you will support the Project Gutenberg™
mission of promoting free access to electronic works by freely
sharing Project Gutenberg™ works in compliance with the terms of
this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg™ name
associated with the work. You can easily comply with the terms of
this agreement by keeping this work in the same format with its
attached full Project Gutenberg™ License when you share it without
charge with others.

1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also
govern what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most
countries are in a constant state of change. If you are outside the
United States, check the laws of your country in addition to the terms
of this agreement before downloading, copying, displaying,
performing, distributing or creating derivative works based on this
work or any other Project Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes
no representations concerning the copyright status of any work in
any country other than the United States.

1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:

1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other

immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must
appear prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg™
work (any work on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or
with which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is
accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, copied or distributed:
 This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you
are not located in the United States, you will have to check the
laws of the country where you are located before using this
eBook.

1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is derived

from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not contain a
notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the copyright
holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in the
United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are
redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “Project
Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must
comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through
1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project
Gutenberg™ trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.

1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted

with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms
will be linked to the Project Gutenberg™ License for all works posted
with the permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of
this work.

1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project

Gutenberg™ License terms from this work, or any files containing a
part of this work or any other work associated with Project
Gutenberg™.

1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this

electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
Gutenberg™ License.
1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form,
including any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you
provide access to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg™ work
in a format other than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in
the official version posted on the official Project Gutenberg™ website
(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense
to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means
of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain
Vanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the
full Project Gutenberg™ License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.

1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,

performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™ works
unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.

1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing

access to or distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works
provided that:

• You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the
method you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The
fee is owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark,
but he has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to
the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty
payments must be paid within 60 days following each date on
which you prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your
periodic tax returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked
as such and sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
Foundation at the address specified in Section 4, “Information
about donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
Foundation.”

• You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who

notifies you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that
s/he does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™
License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all
 copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and
discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of Project
Gutenberg™ works.

• You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of

any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in
the electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90
days of receipt of the work.

• You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works.

1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg™

electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of
the Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set
forth in Section 3 below.

1.F.

1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend

considerable effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe
and proofread works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating
the Project Gutenberg™ collection. Despite these efforts, Project
Gutenberg™ electronic works, and the medium on which they may
be stored, may contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to,
incomplete, inaccurate or corrupt data, transcription errors, a
copyright or other intellectual property infringement, a defective or
damaged disk or other medium, a computer virus, or computer
codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.

1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except

for the “Right of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph
1.F.3, the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner
of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party
distributing a Project Gutenberg™ electronic work under this
agreement, disclaim all liability to you for damages, costs and
expenses, including legal fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO
REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, BREACH OF
WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE
FOUNDATION, THE TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY
DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE LIABLE
TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL,
PUNITIVE OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE
NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you

discover a defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it,
you can receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by
sending a written explanation to the person you received the work
from. If you received the work on a physical medium, you must
return the medium with your written explanation. The person or entity
that provided you with the defective work may elect to provide a
replacement copy in lieu of a refund. If you received the work
electronically, the person or entity providing it to you may choose to
give you a second opportunity to receive the work electronically in
lieu of a refund. If the second copy is also defective, you may
demand a refund in writing without further opportunities to fix the
problem.

1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth in
paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’, WITH NO
OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.

1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied

warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted
by the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any
provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the
Foundation, the trademark owner, any agent or employee of the
Foundation, anyone providing copies of Project Gutenberg™
electronic works in accordance with this agreement, and any
volunteers associated with the production, promotion and distribution
of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works, harmless from all liability,
costs and expenses, including legal fees, that arise directly or
indirectly from any of the following which you do or cause to occur:
(a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg™ work, (b)
alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any Project
Gutenberg™ work, and (c) any Defect you cause.

Section 2. Information about the Mission of

Project Gutenberg™
Project Gutenberg™ is synonymous with the free distribution of
electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of
computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.
It exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and
donations from people in all walks of life.

Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the

assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg™’s
goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg™ collection will
remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a
secure and permanent future for Project Gutenberg™ and future
generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help,
see Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at
www.gutenberg.org.

Section 3. Information about the Project

Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit
501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
Revenue Service. The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification
number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state’s laws.

The Foundation’s business office is located at 809 North 1500 West,

Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up
to date contact information can be found at the Foundation’s website
and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact

Section 4. Information about Donations to

the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
Foundation
Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without
widespread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can
be freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the
widest array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small
donations ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax
exempt status with the IRS.

The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating

charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and
keep up with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in
locations where we have not received written confirmation of
compliance. To SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of
compliance for any particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate.

While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where

we have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no
prohibition against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in
such states who approach us with offers to donate.

International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make

any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.

Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation
methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of
other ways including checks, online payments and credit card
donations. To donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate.

Section 5. General Information About Project

Gutenberg™ electronic works
Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project
Gutenberg™ concept of a library of electronic works that could be
freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and
distributed Project Gutenberg™ eBooks with only a loose network of
volunteer support.

Project Gutenberg™ eBooks are often created from several printed

editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in
the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not
necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper
edition.

Most people start at our website which has the main PG search
facility: www.gutenberg.org.

This website includes information about Project Gutenberg™,

including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how
to subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.