Contested Individualization Debates about Contemporary Personhood [Hardcover]

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.Putting Gender Back In: Individualization and Social Policy Reform; J.Brody Late Modernity, Individualization, and Identity Capital: A Synopsis of Findings; J.C?t? The New Individualism: The Emotional Costs of Globalization; A.Elliott Individualization, Social Policy, and the Democratization of Personhood and Family Life; H.Ferguson Values, Role, and Character; P.Hoggett The Risk Society and Young People: Life at the Intersection of Risk, Economy, and Illiberal Governmentalities; P.Kelly Is Individualization Freeing, Redistributing Risk, or Changing Inequality Structures?: Five Key Debates in the Life Course Literature; M.Mills Sutured Selves, Queer Connections: Intimacy at the Cutting Edge of Individualization; S.Roseneil Individualization as a Scheme of Interpretation: Why Class (and) Inequalities Persist; H.Strasser Individualization: Forms, Trajectories, Genealogies; W.Walters Individualization and Personhood; A.Yeatman

This book addresses one of the most discussed topics in behavioral sciences since the early 1980s. The range of topics dealt with is impressive, and the author exhibits a creative linking of contemporary debates on individualization to the neo-liberal model of social governance, welfare state reform, and globalization. - Hermann Strasser, Professor of Sociology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany

If one wants to analyze the present and the future of modernity one has to understand the process of 'institutionalized individualization' and its consequences, which means: no beds are left to re-embed. Individualization, therefore, undercuts and transforms basic institutions like family life, gender relations, social class, party systems, religion etc. This book is a must-read - it clarifies the concept of individul3