Processes of individualization in the presence of strong collective identities

Abstract

In the contemporary societies people try to build an individualized approach through life, while the collective identity coercions starts to pale. This ratio consists of many aspects like the intensity of the existing collective identities, the consistency of transmission of the parent’s way of living to their children and the individual choices that are available for the young people in the specific social context. In Macedonian society there are some modern processes concerning the development of stronger personal identities of the youth, and their attempts to change the way of living comparing the way their parents did. Having in mind that in Macedonia live citizens that are members of different cultural and ethnic groups the analysis will show even local differences elaborating these phenomena. There are indications that there is some fluctuation towards bigger individualization among youth and the evidence that the young people still lives their parent’s collective identities. The target group of the research is the student population, in the study that was done on the sample of 707 respondents, chosen by quotas, from the six universities in the country. The main thesis is that the students are still "overshadowed of the successes" of their parents past social experience, that is strongly connected with the collective nature of their identities. The main research questions are the state of the collective identities, the relation between the parents and the student's collective identification, and the evidence of stronger development of the self-confidence among students. (author's abstract)