The proposed concept of second order self-actualization is derived from a research (based on document analysis and participant observation: Guibentif, 2016) on the impact in the experience of rights of the austerity measures applied in Portugal from 2011 to 2015 according to the Memorandum of Understanding signed between that country and the “Troika” (European Commission, European Central Bank, IMF), as a condition for financial assistance. In the social movements protesting against these measures, a central role has been played by professionals whose vocation is to enhance or re-establish the capabilities of other people: professionals committed to actualize themselves through the provision of the means for other people to actualize themselves. The dynamics of these social movements is interpreted with the help of the updated version of Luhmann’s systems theory proposed by Gunther Teubner (2012), supplemented by Axel Honneth’s concept of social freedom (Honneth [2011] 2014). As an essential part of the recognition needed by human beings in the late modernity, there is the recognition of the effective exercise of activities in which people have rooms of social freedom, i. e. for acting creatively, but taking advantage of formats corresponding to other people’s expectations. Important sources of social freedom are the spontaneous domains of the functional systems, where individual energies are transformed into social forces. The experience of the successful exercise of social freedom is a strong motivation for the continuation of action, i.e. it is a factor of social force. Obstacles to the exercise of these liberties may be experienced as frustrating and motivate protest. A more detailed analysis of the phenomenon of second order self-actualization requires both an approach of individual experiences and an analysis of the institutional frameworks of the activities of certain professionals and interaction with those concerned by their activities. It is assumed that rights, opening room for social liberty, and valuing capabilities, as well as obligations, play a central role in these frameworks. And they may do so notably by favouring the establishment of bridges between individual experiences. The Portuguese example suggests that the following trend may also exist – strengthened by the context of crisis: these rights and duties, depending on their design, also may open gaps, in the form of organizational walls, between individual experiences. The conceptual framework to be constructed around the concept of second order self-actualization should improve the tools that socio-legal research has available for a reflective work on scientific practice. It could also help to bridge between findings resulting from such reflective work with findings of field research, which could benefit the responsiveness of that research.

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Self-actualization,Rights,capabilities,Social forces