Beck's Individualisation Theory

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;

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

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