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industries have long gone and with them the sense of occupational and territorial identity that
they once engendered. People with a similar occupation and income level may well choose
very different lifestyles, such as the expatriate 'permanent tourists' that O'Reilly (2000)
describes.
In addition, expectations surrounding the workplace have changed. Few people now
expect to have a job for life, more women have entered the workplace and fl exibility in the
workforce is the order of the day (Crompton, 2006; McDowell, 2006; Wilthagen and Tros,
2004), while migration has added the dynamic of ethnic and cultural difference (Begum,
2008; Hartmann and Gerteis, 2005). Racial barriers are less constrictive and sexual identities,
particularly for gays and lesbians, are more open than in the past (Gamson and Moon, 2004).
In short the conformity and certainty of old allegiances have given way to pluralism and
individuation, which is in part a consequence of the political economy, and in part a conse-
quence of the implementation of anti-discriminatory policies and the fostering of more
tolerant and liberal social norms.
Unlike the certainties of fi rst modernity (or rather, perhaps, the familiarities), what we
have in second modernity instead are a different set of constraints that, in an apparent paradox,
create the conditions in which we are forced to make choices that previously would have been
taken for granted and given. Among other things, this process of de-traditionalisation, by
removing the constraints, roles and responsibilities associated with fi rst modernity, such as
class and the family as outlined above, creates a situation where the individual needs to take
a more active part in constructing a sense of self-identity (Beck, 2000; Beck and Beck-
Gernsheim, 2002; Ferguson, 2009; Giddens, 1991; Mathews, 2000; Stets and Burke, 2003;
Wee and Brooks, 2010); a condition that has been aptly termed 'institutionalised individu-
alism' by Beck and Beck-Gernsheim (2002; see also Bauman, 2002), where what we see as
freedom of choice might in fact be a constraint that forces us into making a choice (Bauman,
2002). As a consequence, identities are more bound up with forms of consumption that often
seek to emulate lifestyle aspirations that cut across the old boundaries of class. As part of that
process, consumer products become more oriented towards niche markets which attempt to
exploit and foster consumer demand for individuality.
Now we can argue about just what is meant by choice, such as gender, age and ethnicity
(although the latter is often more fl exible than it may appear), and state bureaucracy will clas-
sify us in certain ways whether we like it or not. We need, however, to be cautious here as
this does not mean there are no constraints, and we also must acknowledge that on the one
hand there are certain aspects of our lives over which we have little or no control, while on
the other factors such as ethnicity, nationalism, religion and politics can still prove to be a
potent combination from which identities are forged (Begum, 2008; Castells, 2004; Delanty
and He, 2008; Plüs, 2005).
Although Beck glosses over some historical details (see Marzower, 1999) and perhaps takes
the vexatious term tradition too much at face value, he nonetheless has identifi ed something
that is quite fundamental to contemporary societies: the apparent paradox of being forced
into making choices rather than being given socially prescribed roles. Similar arguments are
made by Boli and Elliott (2008) who argue that the newly established global regime of accu-
mulation results in the decline of collective forms of identity as it forces the individual to
become the unit of social organisation, which, in turn, means that the individuals '. . . must
consciously construct their identities' (p. 543). This has now become so pervasive that
personal refl exivity itself has become commodifi ed as in the form of 'self-help' topics and
courses: 'The ultimate goal', write Wee and Brooks (2010) '. . . is for an actor to make use of
this self knowledge to better infl uence how he/she is perceived' (p. 47). Under these
