There is in principle a close connection between individualisation and the state in both the European and Chinese contexts. But this connection can assume entirely different forms; indeed it can even point in diametri...There is in principle a close connection between individualisation and the state in both the European and Chinese contexts. But this connection can assume entirely different forms; indeed it can even point in diametrically opposed directions. From a sociological point of view it is important to distinguish between individualism as an ideology and individualisation as a real process resting on institutions. Individualisation means institutionalised individualism. By institutionalised individualism is not meant only a social ideology or an individual mode of perception. Rather, it designates central institutions of modem society such as, for example, civil and social basic rights, all of which are addressed to the individual; alternatively, it refers to the need, mediated through training and the labour market, to develop one's own biography and to extricate oneself from collective regulations; but it also refers to the neohberal global market regime which forces individuals to realise their self-interest as the innermost core of rationality.展开更多
文摘There is in principle a close connection between individualisation and the state in both the European and Chinese contexts. But this connection can assume entirely different forms; indeed it can even point in diametrically opposed directions. From a sociological point of view it is important to distinguish between individualism as an ideology and individualisation as a real process resting on institutions. Individualisation means institutionalised individualism. By institutionalised individualism is not meant only a social ideology or an individual mode of perception. Rather, it designates central institutions of modem society such as, for example, civil and social basic rights, all of which are addressed to the individual; alternatively, it refers to the need, mediated through training and the labour market, to develop one's own biography and to extricate oneself from collective regulations; but it also refers to the neohberal global market regime which forces individuals to realise their self-interest as the innermost core of rationality.