Individualised or participatory? Exploring late-modern identity and sustainable development

The idea of individualization is powerful: in late-modern society people’s sense of identity is based on their individual experience rather than their relationships with others. This is problematic for sustainable development because it conflicts with the ideal of participation enshrined in its theory and practice. It is also unclear how the idea plays out in this field, with emerging evidence that some sustainable development policy and practice is individualizing. The realities of individualization are more complex. Empirical studies outside sustainable development have shown that individualizing policy does not necessarily have individualizing effects. This paper considers how the idea and realities of individualization cast new light on subjectivities imagined in sustainable development theory and practice. I argue that sustainable development scholars and practitioners need to consider a range of late-modern subjectivities, and to be critically aware of how individualization is potentially reproduced in policy and practice.