Are Individualisation and Universalism in Decline? The Potentials and Threats of Rising Collectivism - Presentation at 19th SSSC

The panel brought together researchers and scholars to discuss contemporary social challenges and innovative approaches to fostering inclusive and sustainable human-centred development.

As part of the programme, prof. Dr. Tea Golob, represented the Chair’s scientific and research activities. In addition, in collaboration with prof. M. Makarovič, she presented the paper “The Potentials and Threats of Rising Collectivism”.

In the study, they examine the trajectories of two major modernisation trends; individualisation and universalism and identify emerging social and cultural patterns that appear to be reconfiguring central aspects of modernisation since the Enlightenment, or the so-called Age of Reason. They provide a view of underlying trends and patterns of their development, thereby challenging the classical perspectives on the linear development of modern societies.

The research makes makes three specific contributions:

1.     Bridging grand theory and systematic empirical evidence by combining a diversity of indicators rather than relying on illustrative examples;

2.     Distinguishing structural from cultural indicators, enabling us to test whether what people believe and report diverges from what social structures actually generate — a gap the paper finds to be empirically real and theoretically consequential;

3.     Providing a comprehensive and interpretively careful assessment of what any observed break means, resisting both alarmist narratives of civilisational decline and naive reassurances of linear progress.

modernisation trends.pptx

Download PPTX • 2.54MB