Understanding factors, mechanisms and processes of upward and downward mobility in different countries remains an important scientific task of sociology around the world. The dominant approach to social inequality analysis is the structural approach, which places mobility in the context of social structures’ ability to reproduce or overcome unequal opportunities. Yet, despite prejudice to social mobility in scientific discourse, the reality of modern society emphasizes the role of personal decisions and individual turning points. The theory of individualization, which addresses individual and structural factors together while not contradicting them, has received a great resonance. According to this theory, the importance of structural factors and universal stratification characteristics that determine human life is increasingly weakening in the individual’s biography. Stable economic growth, the advancement of the education and social security system, instability in labor markets and increased flows of transnational migration have weakened class boundaries and increased the diversity of life opportunities and transitions, as well as the role of individual in the creation of own biography and the importance of personal choices, forcing a reconsideration of approaches and methods in studies of social mobility.
The integration of the individual into social mobility research is an important methodological task, which solution is closely linked to the development of a life-course approach to mobility. This approach can be broadly defined as consolidating research on biographies and life-stories of individuals, families, and generations using both quantitative and qualitative methods. In the biographical approach, a person’s life is understood as a result of the reciprocal effects of structural forces and individual actions and can be defined as a series of milestones in life-events defined by the social order, at each one of which an individual chooses certain social roles and statuses. Biographical choices depend also on individual habitus – stable patterns of thinking, perception, and evaluation embedded in the body. However, the ideologically ambiguous concept of individualization suggests the disintegration of previously existing social forms and the increasing fragility of traditionally important parameters of industrial society such as class culture and self-consciousness, race and ethnicity, gender roles and family.
Table of Contents
- Features and processes of individualization through the theoretical viewpoint
- Individualization and role of individual factors in mobility
- Individualization in context of generational biographies
- New structures in labour markets and social security systems in the processes of individualization
Objectives and Key Themes
The paper aims to explore the theory of individualization and its impact on social mobility, specifically analyzing how individuals make choices and decisions in their biographies while considering structural constraints. The research examines the influence of individual factors on mobility, the role of individualization in shaping generational trajectories, and the interaction between new economic structures and traditional social structures within the processes of individualization.
- The theory of individualization and its key concepts
- The role of individual factors in social mobility
- The impact of individualization on generational biographies
- The relationship between new economic structures and individualization
- The interplay between individual agency and structural constraints in shaping life trajectories
Chapter Summaries
The first chapter delves into the theoretical framework of individualization, outlining its main concepts and historical development. It explores how individualization has become a defining feature of modern societies and its implications for the construction of personal identity and life trajectories. The second chapter examines the role of individual factors in social mobility, focusing on the concept of agency and its influence on biographical transitions. This chapter analyzes how individual decisions and actions, driven by personal characteristics and circumstances, contribute to mobility patterns. The third chapter investigates individualization in the context of generational biographies, exploring how changing societal trends and experiences impact the life paths of contemporary generations. It examines how individualization shapes the face of socio-economic inequality across different generations.
Keywords
The primary keywords and focus topics of this paper are individualization, social mobility, agency, biographical transitions, generational biographies, structural constraints, economic structures, social security systems, and the interplay between individual agency and social structures. The paper explores the complex interplay of individual choices, structural factors, and historical contexts in shaping individual life trajectories and understanding social mobility.
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- Anna Mikulina (Autor:in), 2020, Individualized Biography. Combining Individual and Structural Perspective, München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/923300
