Autonomous Lifestyle
Autonomous Lifestyle
Social Stratification and Lifestyle
The individualization thesis of Beck and the class/strata debate generated by it defined one of the main strands of lifestyle and milieu approaches in German sociology. Its main element is the argument according to which in modern societies the deterministic role of previous economic factors have been replaced—due to the culturalization of life conduct—entirely or largely by lifestyle as a main element of identity construction and vehicle of social integration. Such autonomy of lifestyle, however, could only be partially defended against its critiques. At the same time the new social changes and the revision of previous approaches increasingly shift ed theories of social structure towards a synthesis as well as gave rise to the emergence of plural models capturing the complexity of social phenomena. This selection of articles intends to give an insight into these debates, by picking some of the most important papers—that as less known in Hungary—from the large pool of German literature in the field and by summarising the criticisms and developments of lifestyle approaches.