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When this book was initially published, some twenty years ago, the topic of the self was considered relatively marginal in mainstream social science. Since that time, the intellectual stock-market ratings of identity and the self have moved increasingly centre-stage, and it has been my good fortune to receive many comments from students and lecturers – in fields such as sociology, political science, cultural and media studies – who have studied this book in order to better grapple with our lives in these times. As I try to demonstrate throughout the book, there is no one disciplinary approach for adequately grasping the complexities of self in the global digital age; on the contrary, only an interdisciplinary approach – the standpoint of social theory – can sufficiently scoop up the complex array of theoretical standpoints (from structuralism to psychoanalysis, feminism to postmodernism) in order to engage concepts of the self that are so fundamental to both public political life and the social sciences and humanities. In this new edition, I have made updates that, wherever possible, report on the latest research advances and political developments. There is also a new chapter on technological innovations in artificial intelligence, robotics and accelerating automation, one of the biggest transformations in the world impacting the self and personal life.

My thanks, as ever, to everyone at Polity Press, in particular John Thompson and especially Jonathan Skerrett for assistance in preparing this fourth edition.

The following people provided invaluable support as I was working on this edition: Anthony Giddens, Gerhard Boomgaarden, Masataka Katagiri, Ralf Blomqvist, Eric Hsu, Ross Boyd, Louis Everuss, Judy Wajcman, John Cash, Atsushi Sawai, Anthony Moran, Carmel Meiklejohn, Kriss McKie, Rina Yamamoto, Takeshi Deguchi, Hideki Endo and Nick Stevenson. I should like to thank Nicola Geraghty, who supported my work on this book across all editions. The book originally appeared around the time of the birth of our daughter Caoimhe, and it always was her book: as I watch her navigate the rich territories of her world, I realize that the book remains hers, more than ever.

Anthony Elliott

Adelaide