The British Journal of Sociology
Volume 58 No 4 December 2007
Pages 679-705
Abstract
From the start individualization theory is the investigation of the paradigm shift in social inequality. Furthermore it shows, how the transnationalization of social inequalities bursts the framework of institutional responses - nation state (parties), trade unions, welfare state systems and the national sociologies of social classes. In this essay I shall try to conceptually elucidate the 'cosmopolitan perspective' on relations of social inequality in three cases: (1) the inequality of global risk; (2) the Europe-wide dynamic of inequality; and (3) transnational inequalities, which emerge from the capacities and resources to transcend borders. Before that I take up Will Atkinson's question: 'What exactly constitutes individualization and to what extent has it really displaced class?' (Atkinson 2007: Abstract)
Keywords: institutionalized individualization, transnationalisation of social inequalities, methodological nationalism, methodological cosmopolitanism
Ulrich Beck
Insitut fur Soziologie, Ludwig-Maximillans-Universitet Munich
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