The following is a slogan from a German public transport campaign, which, I think… is a brilliant definition of ‘reflexivity’.
“You’re not stuck in a traffic jam, you are the jam.”
What’s the difference between a ‘reflective’ person and a ‘reflexive’ person?
Posted on by gohbyname
Published by gohbyname
I am a ‘People Practitioner’ who has, over the years, been swept up by the tidal wave of change that has seen my profession go from being called Manpower Management to Personnel Management to Human Resource Management, and now back, well sort of… to Systemic People Management. I came up with the last phrase because I find myself increasingly uncomfortable with working within the confines of the ubiquitous neo-liberal approach to categorising and organising people. I believe that people are people, not merely assets, human capital or resources. While we do find fulfilment from PRODUCTivity, we are ultimately human beings, not human doings. I would like to transcend who we have become and becoming in a marketized, monetarised world and leave the corporatist worldview that reminds me so much of the allegory of Plato’s Cave. I love God, my family, playing guitar, following Arsenal, travelling and taking and editing photos. This website is a celebration of all these things and more. View all posts by gohbyname
I really do not understand it. I may be part of the jam but not the jam itself. The Jam is not just the sum of the cars stopped or crawling along the road. There are reasons for the slow down, an accident for instance.
Then perhaps the department responsible for the roads, the makers of road vehicles who only want to sell cars and make money are all other factors which could be said to be part of the jam.
Hi there – with any analogy, it breaks down under too much scrutiny.
However, this is a reference to a point I was trying to make in a previous blog. See https://gohbyname.wordpress.com/2011/04/21/%E2%80%9Creflexivity%E2%80%9D/
Reflection is like looking at a relational episode through a mirror. You reflecting on what you see.
Reflectivity, however, is the ability to notice why things are the way they are, in particular your part in it. It’s about noticing patterns and asking how one’s own world view, values, socialisation, ideology, biases, etc create the social reality…