Individualization as a modernization outcome differs sharply from neoliberal individualism and psychological individuation

Evidence

What are these modernities and how do they matter to our story? The advent of the individual as the locus of moral agency and choice initially occurred in the West, where the conditions for this emergence first took hold. First let’s establish that the concept of “individualization” should not be confused with the neoliberal ideology of “individualism” that shifts all responsibility for success or failure to a mythical, atomized, isolated individual, doomed to a life of perpetual competition and disconnected from relationships, community, and society. Neither does it refer to the psychological process of “individuation” that is associated with the lifelong exploration of self-development. Instead, individualization is a consequence of long-term processes of modernization. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 103

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes individualization from two false cognates (individualism, individuation) — a clear conceptual definition.
• XREF: connects to: Neoliberal self-entrepreneurship destabilizes the fixed boundaries of personhood — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 418; Individualization is institutionalized and reshapes class inequality analysis — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1725; Standardized production forces a compensating pretence of individualism — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry: Selected Essays…, 82 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Standardized production forces a compensating pretence of individualism #expands (0.75) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 82
• Neoliberalism replaces labor with human capital and dissolves the stable self #corroborates (0.75) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 162
• Individuality and universal equality historically arise as twin reactions to inequality #exemplifies (0.72) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 687
• Modern individualism shifted from freedom-as-such to the value of being this specific irreplaceable self #qualifies (0.70) — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 2844