Bodily Entanglement: Bergson and Thresholds in the Sociology of Affect

D. H. Lawrence's and Henri Bergson's systemic accounts of life in terms of material connectivity/entanglement and durational self-differentiation provide an exciting alternative to static, analytical and atomistic approaches to consciousness, the individual and the group. However, they pose important questions regarding the precise nature of boundaries in a dynamic, materially connected universe. Where does consciousness begin and end, where does the individual begin and end, where does the group begin and end? How do discrete entities emerge at all in a universe of flux, transformation and connectivity? This paper suggests that we might think in terms of dynamic 'thresholds' produced by systems of selection and limitation. Some pointers in this direction are taken from Bergson himself, but also from the work of the complexity theorist Stuart Kauffman and the neurophilosopher Gerald Edelman. One way that this might be applied in practice is demonstrated by use of a case study on African-American youth culture taken from the work of Jock Young.