Individualization is institutionalized and reshapes class inequality analysis

Evidence

10. For readers interested in a more detailed analysis of the rise of this phenomenon, I recommend the extended discussion in Zuboff and Maxmin, The Support Economy. See also Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim, Individualization: Institutionalized Individualism and Its Social and Political Consequences (London: Sage, 2002); Ulrich Beck, “Why ‘Class’ Is Too Soft a Category to Capture the Explosiveness of Social Inequality at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century,” British Journal of Sociology 64, no. 1 (2013): 63–74; Ulrich Beck and Edgar Grande, “Varieties of Second Modernity: The Cosmopolitan Turn in Social and Political Theory and Research,” British Journal of Sociology 61, no. 3 (2010): 409–43. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1725

Categorization

• XREF: Beck’s institutionalized individualism anticipates Zuboff’s individualized-consumer argument; the Beck ‘class too soft a category’ essay is directly relevant to the book’s substitute-satisfaction thesis. — connects to: Meritocracy is a fairy tale masking class as individual choice — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 222; Individuality and universal equality historically arise as twin reactions to inequality — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 687; Neoclassical economics replaced class analysis with individualistic merit narratives — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 30 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Individualization as a modernization outcome differs sharply from neoliberal individualism and psychological individuation #expands (0.82) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 103
• Class difference persists even as class consciousness converges #corroborates (0.80) — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 193
• Individuality and universal equality historically arise as twin reactions to inequality #complicates (0.78) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 687
• Narrowing equality to within-class comparisons makes self-placement tolerable #corroborates (0.78) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2168
• Neoclassical economics replaced class analysis with individualistic merit narratives #expands (0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 30
• Institutionalization enables collective work while codification imposes a false orthodoxy #expands (0.72)