Individualização, fragmentação e risco social nas sociedades globalizadas

• Main Author: Pedro Hespanha
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbra 2002-10-01
• Series: Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais
• Subjects: globalization; social risk; social exclusion; individualization; social segmentation; Portugal
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/rccs/1253

The author reflects on the processes through which globalization is causing the corrosion of the structures of internal cohesion in contemporary societies and at the same time leading to an increasing risk of marginalization and exclusion for growing sectors of the population. As one of these processes, social differentiation is related to phenomena that are quite visible in contemporary societies, such as the increase of inequality, the growing marginalization of certain groups, and the gradual destruction of social solidarities. The text begins by analyzing two of the most obvious effects of the process of social differentiation (social segmentation and individualization in social life) and then focuses on the exacerbation of social risk and its relative invisibility. Portuguese society is taken as a reference point for this discussion, and evidence is provided by the results of the studies made in the context of the project on globalization.