Individualización en Chile. Individuo y sociedad en las transformaciones culturales recientes

Abstract

The individualization theory emerges in the context of reflexive modernity to elucidate the transformations in the advanced industrial society. In Chile, it has constituted one of the main analytical frames for social scientists in the last decades to account on the recent cultural transformations of individuals and society. This article aims to characterize the field of study and the processes of individualization in Chile. First, it attempts to construct and analyze the interdisciplinary field of social sciences that has used the individualization theory to comprehend the recent cultural transformations. Second, it intends to characterize and describe the individualization processes that would take place at individual and social levels, arguing about their possible contradictions and consequences. Third, it proposes a critical and constructive reading of individualizations studies in Chile. Finally, it recognizes the advances and traces some challenges to think future analysis of the cultural transformations of individuals and society in Chile from the individualization theory.