ABSTRACT
The fact that all first names are open to all individuals regardless of their resources allows people from the lower strata to gain status by appropriating the names of the higher strata. The stratification theory assumes that people will try to defend or increase their access to resources so as to maintain or improve their relative position in the social structure. The social significance of inequality is tempered by the rise in prosperity and the increased security afforded by the welfare state. Monika Wohlraub-Sahr denotes two levels at which social change can take place with regard to individuation. On a social-structural level changes in the division of labor, in social differentiation and class affiliations can lead to individuation. One can also denote a discursive level separate from the social-structural one. Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gensheim connect individuation processes with the destructuring of social strata and classes and the dissolution of social milieus.
