Reviewing the critique of individualization

Abstract

This is a review article of the substantial sociological literature on individualization. It is especially concerned with empirical research that questions the largely theoretical claims of Zygmunt Bauman, Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens. I argue that this literature can be split into three camps: Modernist, Interactionist, Discourse. Although all three perspectives come to different conclusions, and use different methods to get there, a synthesis of their conclusions can give us a more empirically informed conception of individualization. This includes an increased focus on: inequality, collective identification and the political nature of individualization. The review concludes by suggesting that we can differentiate between a form of ‘disembedded’ individualization, which lacks empirical backing, and an ‘embedded’ conception, which does not.