Variants of Individualism

Abstract

In sociology individualism has been generally understood as a strictly modern phenomenon inseparable from the notion of institutional individualism. This is a conception which fails to recognize the presence of individuals in other societies and periods or which, by comparing them with this model, concludes in its insufficiencies. This paper, after developing a terminological characterization of some key notions (individual, individuation, individualization and individuality) and a critical review of the main assumptions of institutional individualism, proposes the existence of three other great modalities of individualism: communitarian individualism, onto-relational individualism and agentic individualism. Each of these modalities is characterized by a particular articulation between a conception of the actor and different forms of legitimacy of individuality.