ABSTRACT
In the contemporary sociological discourse, the modernisation process in Germany is addressed from two points of view. On the one hand, research on social structure in the 1980s has shown that the relation between origin (social class), education, occupation and income has not really changed but that the structure of social inequality which is typical for industrial societies has become stabilised. The welfare state with its politics of institutionalisation of the life course, of the so-called ‘normal biography’, is seen as the mechanism of structural reproduction. The normal biography is characterised by life-long employment and income which provide the individual with access to the benefits of the social security system, and also with chances for social participation. On the other hand, longitudinal analyses as well as analyses of social life worlds, biographies and cultural theory research have contributed to an understanding of recent changes in the social system. These changes are described with reference to processes of differentiation that have resulted in an individualisation of the life course. Thus, social change is discussed as a process of destandardisation of value systems, which is considered to be taking place both despite and, at the same time, along with the process of institutionalisation of the normal biography.
