%0 Journal Article
%A Romero Moñivas, Jesús
%T The emergence of social folds: how the environment contributes to the creation of ambivalent social actors
%D 2023
%@ 0147-2011
%U https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/105172
%X The concept of “environment” is ambiguous in social theory. Sometimes it is wielded like a “tyrant” which moulds subjects as if they were a simple refection of its environment; other times it is treated as if the environment is a “slave” of subjects whose agency can transform it. This paper refects on the complex interaction between people and their environments. Social theory cannot establish a univocal, abstract, fnal explanation of the infuence of the environment on people’s behaviour and identity. Each environment will have a situational confguration that will have diferent consequences depending on other biological and cultural traits of the subject. Each specifc situation must be analysed empirically to understand this complex interaction. The subject-environment mismatch creates “social folds” — that is wrinkles which open new social spaces and enable freedom. The modulation between environment and subject creates risks to freedom, but also liberating opportunities.
%~