• Context: concern with individualism as a modern phenomenon; attempt to present an ethical defense of individualism; how to reconcile individualism with ethical concern for other members of society? Durkheim rejects both the utilitarian defense of individualism found in classical liberalism and the collectivist rejection of individualism advanced by the church, the military, and the authoritar...

Reflexivity is actually a key term in the dramatic and rapid changes confronted by the human sciences (especially sociology) during the last four decades and “yet the word is used in so many different senses that it often sustains confusion rather than clarifying any underlying issues” (Holland, 1999: 463). In general, reflexivity was comprehensively defined by George Herbert Mead as “the turni...

The theory of symbolic racism places its origins in a blend of anti-Black affect and conservative values, particularly individualism. We clarify that hypothesis, test it directly, and report several findings consistent with it. Study 1 shows that racial prejudice and general political conservatism fall into 2 separate factors, with symbolic racism loading about equally on both. Study 2 found th...

This paper investigates the systemic nature of methodological individualism. According to widespread belief, the notion of autonomy of the actor that is defended by methodological individualism is mistaken because it is incompatible with the study of society in terms of its organized structure. We argue that this viewpoint must be rejected. In our opinion, it stems from confusion between ontolo...

There are two urgent questions in academic research on Communities of Practice. The first is how to safeguard the sustainability of a Community of Practice (CoP). The second is how to motivate people in order to participate in and to contribute to such a community. In this paper we try to answer these questions by assuming networked individualism. This notion refers to the observation that indi...

This paper contributes to the economics of culture by introducing an instrument for individualism that is supported by economic theory. Extending a familiar model of risk sharing arrangements to incorporate optimal socialization decisions, I show that collectivist social ties are stronger in riskier environments. This result motivates the use of rainfall variation, a measure of exogenous agricu...