Abstract

The sociological study of individuation processes in modern occidental societies has mobilized the thesis of institutional individualism as a key concept. This article argues that this thesis may not be appropriate to understand societies with different cultural traditions and institutional practices. Based upon the results of qualitative research conducted in Chile the article discusses the existence of a specific path to individuation in this society. The data show the analytical preeminence within the individuation process in Chile of a group of competences that must be generated and developed in confronting social life itself. Individuation leads in Chile to the constitution of relational hyper-actors based upon four dimensions: self-effort, abilities, interpersonal relationships and pragmatic consistency. This is what we propose to understand as agentic individualism.