Disembedding

Disembedding Definition

Disembedding is the process by which social relations are lifted out of the local settings that once gave them meaning and stretched across time and space into a global context. When relationships are removed from the purely local environment in which they were rooted, they are said to be disembedded — the use of email and the internet for swift contact with distant parts of the globe being a familiar example.

Giddens: Disembedding and Re-embedding

The idea comes from Anthony Giddens, who treats disembedding and re-embedding as twin mechanisms characteristic of the modern world. Abstract systems — for example symbolic tokens such as money — spread social relations far and wide: we can now hire financial services from a call center in India or order made-to-measure suits from Hong Kong over the internet. In doing so, traditional bonds with neighbors are weakened. Because this disembedding leaves people feeling insecure, they seek to re-embed through new kinds of relationship (such as email friendships), new forms of community (such as internet sites), and new forms of politics (such as promoting the rights of a lifestyle group).