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David Gauntlett, during his Lego study found that there was
a tension between the desire to be an individual and wanting
to be part of a collective of society.
Foucault argues that who we are—or who we perceive
ourselves to be—is far from a matter of individual choice; on the
contrary, it is the product of powerful and subtle forms of
“governmentality” that are characteristic of modern liberal
democracies. Foucault asserts that there has been a shift in the
ways in which power is exercised in the modern world, which is
apparent in a whole range of social domains. Rather than being
held (and indeed displayed) by sovereign authorities, power is
now diffused through social relationships; rather than being
regulated by external agencies (the government or the church),
individuals are now encouraged to regulate themselves and to
ensure that their own behavior falls within acceptable norms.
What Giddens describes as self-reflexivity is seen by Foucault in
much more sinister terms, as a process of self-monitoring and
self-surveillance. Giddens’ “project of the self” is recast here as a
matter of individuals policing themselves, and the forms of self-
help and therapy that Giddens seems to regard in quite positive
terms are redefined as modern forms of confession, in which
individuals are constantly required to account for themselves and
“speak the truth” about their identities.