2007/12/01 by Ulrich Beck · 4 citations
Health Professions · Social Sciences · #Employment and Welfare Studies #Social Policy and Reform Studies #Youth Education and Societal Dynamics
paper · doi:10.1111/j.1468-4446.2007.00171.x
openalex publication_date 2007/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/21
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).