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The authors perceive that we humans are in the midst of a fundamental change in the nature of society and politics. This change hinges on the two processes of globalisation and individualisation.
This book critically engages with a series of provocative questions that ask: Why are contemporary societies so dependent on constructive and destructive effects of individualization? Is this phenomenon only related to the ‘second’ or ‘late’ modernity? Can the concept of individualization be productively used for developing a sociological diagnosis of our time? The innovative answers suggested in this book are focused on two types of challenges accompanying the rise of individualization. First, that it is caused by controversial changes in social structures and action patterns. Second, that the effects of individualization question varieties of the common good. Both challenges have a long history but reached critical intensity in advanced contemporary societies in the context of current globalization.
Paradoxes of Individualization addresses one of the most hotly debated issues in contemporary sociology: whether a process of individualization is liberating selves from society so as to make them the authors of their personal biographies. The book adopts a cultural-sociological approach that firmly rejects such a notion of individualization as naïve. The process is instead conceptualized as an increasing social significance of moral notions of individual liberty, personal authenticity and cultural tolerance, which informs two paradoxes. Firstly, chapters about consumer behavior, computer gaming, new age spirituality and right-wing extremism demonstrate that this individualism entails a new, yet often unacknowledged, form of social control. The second paradox, addressed in chapters about religious, cultural and political conflict, is concerned with the fact that it is precisely individualism's increased social significance that has made it morally and politically contested. Paradoxes of Individualization, will therefore be of interest to scholars and students of cultural sociology, cultural anthropology, political science, and cultural, religious and media studies, and particularly to those with interests in social theory, culture, politics and religion.
Howard brings together top contributorsin avolume that provides a survey of new research and theoretical work on the topic of individualization. Topics covered include gender, social policy reform, and economy.
Influenced most notably by Émile Durkheim and Zygmunt Bauman, Dawson outlines how this long neglected stream of socialist theory can help us more fully understand, and possibly move beyond, the problems of neoliberalism and our conceptions of political individualism.
Chinese society has seen phenomenal change in the last 30 years. Two of the most profound changes have been the rise of the individual in both public and private spheres and the consequent individualization of Chinese society itself. Yet, despite China's recent dramatic entrance into global politics and economics, neither of these significant shifts has been fully analysed. China may indeed present an alternative model of social transformation in the age of globalisation - so its path to development may have particular implications for the developing world.The Individualization of Chinese Society reveals how individual agency has been on the rise since the 1970s and how this has impacted on everyday life and Chinese society more broadly. The book presents a wide range of detailed case studies - on the impact of economic policy, patterns of kinship, changes in marriage relations and the socio-economic position of women, the development of youth culture, the politics of consumerism, and shifting power relations in everyday life.
The Individualization of War examines the status of individuals in contemporary armed conflict in three main capacities: as subject to violence but deserving of protection; as liable to harm because of their responsibility for attacks on others; and as agents who can be held accountable for the perpetration of crimes.
Education, Individualization and Neoliberalism questions the individualization process in education in the Anglo-American context and analyses how this process is applied in the everyday life of millennials with tertiary education in Southern Europe. Valerie Visanich explores the close affinity of this concept to neoliberalism in contemporary societies, specifically by focusing on changes in education and employment. Using Beck & Beck-Gernsheim's concept of individualization to refer to increased freedom in one's life choices yet at the same time increased risks, Visanich unpacks the trajectories of life experiences of tertiary educated millennials in the contemporary neoliberal Anglo-American setting in relation to recent cultural and socio-economic changes. She examines how this individualized mode is adopted and adapted in countries across Southern Europe including Italy, Spain, Portugal, Malta and Greece – in locations where cultural conditions habitually cushion-out, often by family networks and patronage, some of the burdens of being young today.