discursive consciousness

discursive consciousness

‘what actors are able to say, or to give verbal expression to, about social conditions, including especially the conditions of their own action’ (GIDDENS, 1984). For Giddens, it is important to notice that such consciousness is not all that actors ‘know’, that alongside ‘discursive knowledge’ there also exists PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE: what every actor knows, and needs to know, to get around in the social world, but cannot always express. See also STRATIFICATION MODEL OF SOCIAL ACTION AND CONSCIOUSNESS.