Sociology Plus
Discursive Consciousness Definition
Discursive consciousness is the capacity to put into words why we act as we do — to give verbal expression to the reasons for our conduct and to the social conditions surrounding it. We are being discursive whenever we offer reasons for our actions, whether in formal discourse or through humor, irony, and similar means.
Giddens and the Limits of Discursive Knowledge
The term is central to Anthony Giddens’s account of social action. In his formulation (1984), discursive consciousness is “what actors are able to say, or to give verbal expression to, about social conditions, including especially the conditions of their own action.” Giddens stresses that such consciousness is not the whole of what actors know. Alongside discursive knowledge there exists practical knowledge — everything that actors need to know in order to get around in the social world but cannot always articulate. The distinction forms part of his stratification model of social action and consciousness.