ABSTRACT
Luckmann introduces his book by stating that social science focusses a lot on social systems and structures and too little on the individual. He asks what the impact of modern society upon the course of individual life is and in what way a person can maintain his autonomy in this society. In order to get a grasp of socialization, then, what is needed is a theoretical reorientation. Through this, Luckmann wants to make visible a radical transformation of the relation of the individual to the social order that occurred with the emergence of modern society. Retracing this issue through the works of Weber and Durkheim, Luckmann concludes that the relevance of sociology for contemporary man derives primarily from its search for an understanding of the fate of the person in the structure of modern society.
