How To Study Processes of Reflexive Institutionalization: A Proposal for a Research Path and Critical Remarks for Own Research

Abstract

This article is devoted to the presentation of the author’s research path applied to the analysis of reflexive modernization processes. In the first part, I present the relevance of the issue of reflexive institutionalization for the processes of social reproduction. I then explain the role of discourse in the processes of legitimizing specific forms of social order related to reflexive modernization. At the third stage, I propose a scheme of research procedure, research tools, and efforts undertaken to apply the quasi-theory of reflexive modernization to my own research. I illustrate the proposal with a sample of conducted analyses. Finally, I refer to the problems, dilemmas, and insurmountable difficulties accompanying this work, with particular reference to the epistemological and ontological tension revealed in the research, the consequences of the selection (or lack thereof) of contrasting groups in the conducted research, and the dilemmas related to the use of the theory of individual reflexivity in the case of attempts to study reflexive modernization.