ABSTRACT
Contemporary theories of individualisation (Beck 1992; Giddens 1991, 1992) argue that modern society is giving a new importance to individuals. Where earlier agrarian and industrial societies provided social scripts, which most individuals were expected to follow, contemporary societies throw more responsibility on to individuals to choose their own identities. Social structures-classes, extended families, occupational communities, long-term employment within a firm-which formerly provided strong frames of identity, grow weaker. Simultaneously, society exposes individuals to bombardments of information, alternative versions of how life might be lived, and requires of individuals that they construct an ‘authentic’ version of themselves, making use of the numerous identityprops which consumer-society makes available. The transition from The Hidden Injuries of Class (1972) in Richard Sennett and Jonathan Cobb’s classic book of that title, to Sennett’s recent study of the children of that generation The Corrosion of Character (1998) provides one description of this transition, which Sennett represents as involving as much loss as gain in terms of psychic and moral wellbeing.
