The myth of individualism: From individualisation to a cultural sociology of individualism

Abstract

This article proposes an alternative to theories of individualisation such as those by Beck, Giddens, and Bauman, and in other forms of subject-oriented sociology that assume a sharp opposition between individual and civil society. Instead, a more cultural-sociological perspective on the individual as a shared value in an individualist culture is elaborated. I follow the French sociologist Alain Ehrenberg who analyses multiple concrete cases to illustrate the nature of contemporary individualism but who is to date not particularly well known to an English-speaking audience. Ehrenberg develops a sociology of individualism that surpasses a ‘realist’ interpretation of the individual-as-actor who constructs his own biography, and instead focuses on the cultural stories or ‘myths’ explaining our view on individuality. Broadening this view beyond this particular sociologist, the article suggests a sociology based on late Durkheimian insights that stress the social nature of our perception of the individual, as well as those of his student, Marcel Mauss. Finally, this also brings us to the fundamental question of the essence of sociological analysis in a time of enhanced emphasis on subjectivity.