Concluding Comment

Abstract

The dominant place of individualism within western societies has been widely acknowledged in sociology. Giddens (1991) and Beck (1992), amongst others, have linked this social, economic and cultural force to the augmentation of individual agency. The data here suggest that the relationship between individualist discourses and individual outcomes, at least in the employment sector, may not be as linear and straightforward as it is sometimes represented. Discourses of ‘choice’, freedom and meritocracy permeate our societies from media representations to political policies and practices (Hughes 2002; Martell & Driver 2006), and the ‘grand narratives’ of structural constraint have been radically marginalised within public and private life.