Key reading Individualisation, choice and structure PDF

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Key reading – Individualisation, choice and structure: a discussion of current trends in sociological analysis. Julia Brannen and Ann Nilsen The paper explores the tendency in current sociological thought to highlight notions of choice and autonomy in writings about contemporary Western societies. It discusses the consequences of leaving out discussions of the structural aspects of societies and people’s lives, for individuals as well as for the development of sociological theory and its ability to understand the connection between history and individual biography. Introduction Choice is a term that is highly associated with individual freedom. In contemporary Western society, individual choice refers not only to consumption, it has become an important part of the public discourse as well as social science language used to analyse fields of people’s lives. The freedom to choose is seen as marker of a free individual and the notion of agency. The individualisation thesis Beck’s Risk Society highlight three theses - Risk society is the process by which the results of modernisation are turning against its own logic of development o Technological development can no longer be controlled according to older knowledge of production. Ecological disaster on a world scale threatens. The distribution of wealth is being replaced by the distribution of risk - Reflexive modernisation: the standards of science from early modernity is confronted with new knowledge which resulted from modernisation. o Modernity comes face to face with the results of its own success and reflexivity becomes essential to forming new logics of development.

- Social class no longer has the same structuring role that it once had o Where once there was a standard biography there is now a choice biography for people to create for themselves.

- According to Beck (1994), one definition of individualisation refers to o ‘. . . first, the disembedding and, second the re-embedding of industrial society ways of life by new ones, in which the individual must produce, stage and cobble together their biographies themselves’ (Beck, 1994, p. 13). o Choice biography vs standard biography  The latter refers to the shaping of the life course in industrial modernity where people’s lives were laid out before them like tram lines; people’s origins decided which lines to follow and which destination or destiny they led to.  In the current period (the theory is very vague about issues of time and place) the choice biography has become the new ‘standard biography’. Institutional changes in welfare state regimes as well as in work and education make people’s lives as individuals less and less predictable.

The structural context is also described as de-traditionalisation, involving a process of ‘liberation’ for the individual in which traditional ways of life can no longer be counted on. Biographical development has no standard to follow and hence must be made up without reference to the lives of past generations. Individual choices and decisions become centre stage Consequently, in contemporary society, the experiences of the older generations have little relevance for the lives of the young. In a detraditionalised society reflexivity is thus also a feature at the individual level in that each person must explain and underpin their actions and choices by ‘rational’ arguments rather than by referring to ‘traditional’ ways of doing things. Diversity and complexity in life course transitions The study concerned a qualitative, cross-national design in which young people’s views about their future lives in respect of work and parenthood were compared in five European countries (Norway, Sweden, UK, Ireland, Portugal).6 Methods included focus groups and individual interviews. The process of analysis was explorative and involved a grounded perspective in the sense that our aim was not to test theory but rather to build analytical concepts from the data. Young people’s expectations of the future - High expectations placed upon young people and the many hurdles they must face to negotiate before they become parents - In many countries such as the UK and Norway, the option of leaving school at the first opportunity (16 in the UK) is now actively discouraged and in the UK young people do not get support from the state if they become unemployed. - In order to become a parent these days, there is the expectation that young people will have completed their

education, established themselves in the labour market and found the means to get on to the housing ladder. - The model of deferment o Live in the present, not thinking about the future just yet but aware they will someday - The model of adaptability o They take one step at a time and try to insure they are equipped to adapt to and deal with a future which they see to be constantly changing. - The model of predictability o Groups viewed their lives as set on clearly charted courses. E.g. group of young British males were of Asian origin and were training to become lawyers conceptual apparatus of the individualisation thesis is too simplistic to capture the variations across and within countries on the issues we have discussed Rather than presenting a picture of a de-traditionalised, reflexive and individualised generation of choice biographers, our data suggests a variety of ways of making the transition from teenager to taking on adult responsibilities. Moreover, as the accounts of the young people suggest, it is clear that those who do not confront the boundaries between different life course phases are middle class young people from north western Europe. Individualisation, ideology and rhetoric Current political rhetoric in many European countries emphasises the positive aspects of individualisation. Accordingly, individualisation is considered not only inevitable, but also desirable from people’s (ie consumers’) point of view, since markets are said to offer freedom of choice.

Positive rhetoric of choice has more appeal to, and relevance for, young people whose social background and education provide the resources necessary to think they are the creators of their own destinies without help or hindrance from others. For the less privileged, the choice rhetoric can serve to worsen their situation and create a pessimistic outlook on life, since according to such an ideology there is no one to blame but oneself, that is, if one has not made the ‘right’ choices or has not succeeded in achieving one’s aims. Individualisation as ideology can thus be thought to disempower those whose lives are more at the mercy of structural constraints than others. Bauman (1998b) discusses these topics in relation to market liberalism. Here people’s individual rights to freedom of choice are defined in terms of consumption which is emphasised at the expense of political rights and citizenship. As the European welfare states are cut back with the political emphasis placed on markets, and a ‘customer ideology’ replaces the discourse of the ‘citizen’, the focus in both social scientific and public discourses can be said to have shifted from concerns about collective welfare and life situations to matters of ‘individual life style’ which relate to consumerism and market choices (Bauman, 1998b). Individualisation is an example of the ‘double nature’ of social science theory - sociological theory offers concepts and notions that are helpful to social scientists for analysing social change and social phenomena in contemporary society. - theories and concepts are themselves products of the very same society that they seek to understand and explore. o : the way they influence interpretations of social life more generally and in particular the currency they provide for

political elites and the media in communicating to the populace Conclusion The concepts and theories are developed from empirical data rather than from existing theory. By drawing on cross-national research based on a grounded and exploratory approach we can see how concepts constructed from empirical analysis are better suited to understanding complex and diverse realities across countries. - such concepts are more sensitive to both agency and structure in research which is contextually grounded Brannen, J. and Nilsen, A. (2005). Individualisation, Choice and Structure: A Discussion of Current Trends in Sociological Analysis. The Sociological Review, 53(3), pp.412-428....