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From Conflict To Embedment: The Individual–Society Relationship, 1920–1991

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Sociological Forum

Abstract

Why does the perception of Americans as conformists disappear after 1970 while the idea of a need for community persists? The literatures of social criticism, self-help, and the social scientific analysis of American character reveal a change in the paradigm used to understand individual–society relationships. A model that assumed the inevitability of conflict between the individual and society has been replaced by one that sees individual selves as possible only within society. For this “relational” or “embedded” self, both conformity and alienation are ever present, and community is a matter of personal choice. Hence, conformity ceases to be an issue, and the nature of individual ties to the broader community remains problematic. Some possible causes and implications of this paradigm shift are suggested.

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  1. Department of Sociology, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, New Jersey, 07666

    Irene Taviss Thomson

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Thomson, I.T. From Conflict To Embedment: The Individual–Society Relationship, 1920–1991. Sociological Forum 12, 631–658 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022178808197

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