The Notion of Ambivalence: Human Action and Social Change beyond Analytical Individualism

Abstract

There has been much debate in social research about the understanding of social change. At first glance it seems that conflicting positions are dominant, which define social change as that which is determined by societal development and seen as a process upon which the influence of human action is very limited. The determining aspect of the social was profoundly expressed by Karl Marx, who emphasized that while human beings make history they do not exist in free and chosen conditions and so the tradition of all ‘death generations’ is like a nightmare on the brain of the living (Marx, 1960, p. 115). An alternative to this perspective of the human being bound by social conditions brought into being by previous generations is the notion that social change is the result of human action. Indeed, the longing for a better life and for a better world becomes efficacious. Accordingly, human action is seen as a thriving force through which social change is propelled. Walter Benjamin argued that such actions could be detected and identified in history. Past events show the capacity of human beings to achieve social change and improve social conditions but can fail — this was seen by Benjamin as a weak messianic force which is passed from previous generations to the current one (Benjamin, 1977, pp. 251–252).