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In recent years, Indian TV screens have seen a proliferation of reality shows focused on romance and dating. This essay examines a range of dating formats arguing that such shows offer rich insights into the ways in which contemporary Indian media culture is negotiating and promoting models of gendered individualism and 'enterprising' modes of selfhood. Drawing upon data from a study funded by the Australian Research Council on lifestyle and reality TV in South East Asia, our analysis focuses on the complex relationship between the ideals of aspirational modernity and choice-based selfhood promoted by these shows and the realities of ongoing gendered social and economic inequities and the continued cultural potency of religious and familial notions of duty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Media consumption in Denmark as well as other western democracies seems to be in transition in several ways. Fewer people keep up with politics and societal developments. Still, on the other hand, people show considerable political confidence and belief in personal political skills as well as in possibilities for making a “difference”. Often this phenomenon is given a theoretical foundation in the notion of “reflexive individualization”.

In Ulrich Beck's writings on the 'risk society' he depicts contemporary western social identity as reflexive and ad hoc — shaped through calculative strategies of self-management rather than traditional social categories such as class. Beck's model of 'reflexive individualization' can be seen to be particularly pertinent to the realm of health today, which is increasingly marked by discourses of the 'DIY' subject. This article uses the findings of a study of young people's use of online health information as a means of examining the utility of Beck's theories. Comparing the experiences of young people from different social backgrounds, the article complicates the assertion that social identity has broken free of its class affiliations. Adopting the term 'health habitus', the article suggests that one way of countering the problematic tendency in Beck's work to displace questions of social location is to ground the notion of reflexive individualization in Bourdieu's concept of habitus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resumo Neste artigo busco atingir dois objetivos principais: primeiro, examinar e reiterar a teoria de um “novo individualismo” que detalhei em escritos recentes de teoria social. Afirmo que hoje presenciamos as condições e consequências de um novo individualismo que varre o mundo e que se evidencia especialmente na nova economia financista das indústrias de mídia e comunicação. Então pergunto: como a teoria do novo individualismo difere de outros pontos de vista influentes na teoria social recente? Para os propósitos deste artigo, os pontos conceituais de comparação com a teoria do novo individualismo serão (a) a teoria das “tecnologias do eu”, conforme elaborada por Michel Foucault e vários neofoucaultianos; e (b) a noção de “individualização reflexiva” delineada por Anthony Giddens. Em segundo lugar, discutirei ramificações sociológicas mais amplas da nova tese sobre o individualismo. O novo individualismo, argumentarei, não se refere meramente a indivíduos ou a suas disposições psicológicas; em vez disso, penetra até o cerne do núcleo da cultura e da vida institucional. Novo individualismo é, portanto, uma espécie de taquigrama para vários processos que moldam, e que são moldados, pelas transformações sociais globais. Os principais condutores institucionais do novo individualismo sobre os quais vou dissertar são (a) reinvenção contínua, (b) mudança instantânea, (c) velocidade e (d) o curto prazo, ou episodicidade. Concluo tecendo considerações sobre as prováveis consequências sociológicas futuras do viver-se a vida na via expressa do novo individualismo.