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Beck's Individualisation Theory

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Q1-Individualisation The individualisation theory refers to the disintegration of previously existing social forms and the imposition in modern societies of new demands, controls, and constraints (Beck, 2002). Before the individualisation revolution, everything was predetermined for you ‘up there,’ echoing Calvin’s theory of predestination. People were put on a predetermined path no matter how much they wanted to express their individualisation. I will be examining the following facets of individualisation that are discussed by the main proponents of the theory: the decline of communism; the changing nature of employment; the welfare state; the decline in civic engagement; increased levels of stress as a result of atomization; meritocracy; …show more content…

Beck believes that the life-course will move towards ‘individualization and atomization’ (Beck 1992: 99; cf. Beck and Willms, 2004: 88). Durkheim’s work on anomic suicide inspired this theory of change in the life-course trajectory. Individuals fail to receive adequate regulation and guidance and this leads to obscurity, anxiety and unpredictability of outcomes aka the ‘risk society’ (Beck, 1992). The breakdown in ontological security and trust may lead to the postponement of life events- choosing life-course options that are more ‘flexible’ and less binding across future time e.g. fixed-term employment and non-marital cohabitation (Mills and Blossfeld 2005). People settle on careers and life courses to avoid the social changes involved with anomic individualization and therefore they won’t reach their full …show more content…

Practices that were once considered non-traditional become popular and reach a certain threshold of participation, replacing previously existing norms and people conform (Mills, 2007). People express their free will as they aren’t bound to norms like before and people can merge and conform to pre-existing life-courses that have been forged throughout the years and are more specialised to their preferences. This relates to the social change of the decline in social capital and civic engagement as before people felt obliged to take part in society but as non-participation rates rise, community involvement becomes rare and people conform to this (Sander and Putnam, 2009). The conformist individualisation’s propensity towards a more non-nuclear family structure in countries such as Hungary and Slovenia is clear as birth outside marriage almost doubles between 1995 and 2014 (OECD, 2014), which is also presented in a graph below. This is because people have conformed to a practice that was once

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How could losing individuality affect a society? The novel Anthem by Ayn Rand is about a guy named Equality 7-2521 who is trying to find himself in a society where everything is controlled and different. Later, he finds himself even though he will have to go through many obstacles to get there. The process behind losing individuality in an Anthem’s society are in forcing strict laws, brain washing of their citizens, and removing of family. The Anthem society in forcing of strict laws made it easy for everyone to lose their individuality.

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Filled with a smorgasbord of rich, detailed interviews of solo dwellers and other stakeholders to single living, Eric Klinenberg’s Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise And Surprising Appeal Of Living Alone (2012) provides an intimate account into the phenomenal rise of solo living that has both paralyzed and empowered American society; a phenomenon that is on an international rise, with its reach extending to other nations across the globe. Klinenberg’s (2002) previous research on the 1995 Chicago heat wave, in which he discovered that most of the 750-odd victims had died in isolation, served as a macabre catalyst that galvanized his initial foray into the rise of living alone. Going Solo thus begins by explaining the social changes that are leading to the rising propensity for solo living, and subsequently takes the reader through a series of life chapters; candidly chronicling the struggles, joys, and quirks of individuals living alone (a population that Klinenberg dubs “singletons” [p.4]). More importantly, he warns of the implications to merely brushing aside this epidemic of singletons as a social problem; a problematic view that echoes the woeful cries of

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Collectivism holds that man must be chained to a collective action and collective thought for the sake of what is called ‘the common good’. In my opinion, this society is similar to that of a communist nation. The rulers of this society disestablish the word “I”, and establish the word “We” to classify an individual. They deprive people of a unique name and give them a name similar to that as a machine that does not have a soul.

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Nature was introduced in romantic novels and poems. In the poem ‘’Thanatopisis’’ by William Cullen Bryant he described death to something that was peaceful and to be embraced. He believed that you become one with nature, one with earth once you die. But in the poem ‘’Devil and Tom Walker’’ by Washington Irving he described death to be evil, sinful. He believed death to horrifying and something to not be embraced.

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However, the idea of individualism is that the individual’s life exists for him and that he has an unavoidable entitlement to live it as he wishes. A person’s independent life means to follow up on his own judgment, to keep and utilize the result of his exertion, and to chase after the estimations of his choosing. Individualism is the thought that the free spirit is sovereign, an end in himself, and the principal component of righteous concern. This is the ideal that our society upholds till today. Our society made a nation in which the individual’s rights to life, freedom, property, and the pursuit of happiness are perceived and

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Individuality is an important part of being a human, having morals, values and self thought. I have chosen to explore the theme ‘Individuality’. Individuality is a theme that is evident in the texts Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, 1984 by George Orwell and The Wave by Morton Rhue. It is also shown through the film Equilibrium directed and written by Kurt Wimmer.

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This is because society has much less of an impact on the individual than before. According to Durkheim’s model, capitalism tends to exhibit a far lower level of integration—due to the fact that the individual is set against all others in and through market competition —while a higher level of regulation is simultaneously required by the state. As a reaction on, and a means of testing of Durkheim’s theories, some empirical data on domestic integration and the rate of suicide has been done. In a comparative study, S. Stack (1980) found that higher birth rates were associated with higher family integration.

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Durkheim in many ways incorporated, both egoism (detachment from structural relations in groups) and anomic (deregulation by symbols) into the true definition of anomie. Durkheim took the initiative to clarify the vagueness of the fact that deregulation of individual’s desires and passions resulted narrowly into suicide. The nature of the deficiency or disjuncture between society and individual differs, although anomic and egoistic suicide both, ‘are generated from the insufficient presence in the individuals of the society’. Anomic suicide basically is created when individuals are not regulated by the society sufficiently. As we move further into the category, we understand that rapid social change disrupts norms and values leading to uncertainty for behaviour becoming increasingly unclear.

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