The two are intertwined. The individual is social and society is composed of individuals. So, individualization is a process whereby the socialized individual develops his or her character in a way that defines them apart from other individuals in the social context. And socialization is, in a broad sense, the production of individuals as persons in the first place. It begins more or less from birth. So, there's always some degree of individualization and some degree of socialization, and it's not a zero sum game either.

But your question is not very clear. Are you confused about the concepts or looking for advice on how to apply them to your own life? Or what?

The two are intertwined. The individual is social and society is composed of individuals. So, individualization is a process whereby the socialized individual develops his or her character in a way that defines them apart from other individuals in the social context. And socialization is, in a broad sense, the production of individuals as persons in the first place. It begins more or less from birth. So, there's always some degree of individualization and some degree of socialization, and it's not a zero sum game either.

But your question is not very clear. Are you confused about the concepts or looking for advice on how to apply them to your own life? Or what? — Baden

Well, we no longer have the draft, in place. But, would you call a society, say Israel, as more coherent and socialized in terms of atomic units rather than the wild and crazy States?

You'd have to come up with some criteria to quantify levels of socialization. I'm not sure how you'd do that in an uncontroversial way. The US regularly gets high survey scores in the area of individualism vs collectivism in Hofstede's cultural dimensions model, for example, whereas Israel gets more of a median score*. So, that's a measure, roughly speaking, of how much people prefer "doing their own thing" and I guess that's what you're pointing to with your comparison. But does that mean Americans are less "socialized" than Israelis? Not necessarily. Americans watch more TV, are more medicated, and are exposed to more advertising and corporate control than the citizens of almost any other country out there. These are all effects that could fall under the umbrella term of socialization. Note too that being an individualist is not necessarily being individualized. So, it's really hard to make comparisons without theory building first. Show me your theory of socialization vs individualization and make sure it's coherent, self-consistent, open and sophisticated enough to handle international comparisons and I'll apply it. But by then you'll already know the answer...

* https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country/israel/



https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Hofstedes-Cultural-Dimension-Model-Hofstede-1991-p28_tbl1_220500429

So, the question has become one of not socialization; but, collectivism.

Can individualism coexist in a highly collectivist society, implying that such a society isn't necessarily homogenous either too.

Yes, it can, but there will tend to be costs in terms of social capital. The nail that sticks out gets hammered down. And so most nails learn a preference for staying down. Homogeneity is always a matter of degree though. And again you'd need to have a theoretical lens through which to examine it in order to uncover much of interest.

Except for the last question above, it's not clear to me what you're asking in this thread, Wallows, or what specific point you'd be making.