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Simmel's work has often been interpreted as a succession of disparate phases of development following contradictory epistemological paradigms and intellectual stances. By analysing the 'money or life metaphor' Hans Blumenberg delivered the paradigmatic assessment for the consistency of Simmel's philosophical work. The present paper critically extends this approach in order to understand the meaning of Simmel's life and forms paradigm and shows that its preeminent theoretical contribution concerns sociological theory. From the analysis emerges that Simmel's delivers a consistent alternative to Parson's conception of functional differentiation in form of a theory of qualitative societal differentiation. In this frame, Simmel's critical adoption and transformation of Marx' theory of societal conflict allows for the foundation of an open-end theory of the development of modernity in the different domains of culture.

AbstractDrawing on the findings of a broad inter‐university research programme conducted in Italy, in this article we explore how individuals' transnational networks combine with other dimensions of their social experience in the production of a self‐perception of their own 'global identity'. In particular, attention is focused on the structures and social spaces of everyday life in five crucial occupations (corporate managers, financial services workers, artists, media professionals and schoolteachers) where people's professional action is performed simultaneously along local and global axes. Within these groups the globalized self does not merely reflect individuals' engagement in transnational networks, but is also the outcome of a complex process including two added dimensions of social life in the job setting: (1) the degree and type of non‐filtered exposure to pressures stemming from the global environment, which both constrain and enable subjective practices of coping with change and ambiguity; and (2) the degree and type of competence in the rhetorics of globalization, namely the level of access to well‐known repertoires of interpretive resources for making sense of global trends. This analysis is consistent with social science conceptualizations arguing for a more nuanced understanding of globalization. In this light, not only is globalization a multidimensional process but it also produces a variety of responses and meanings by differently positioned actors.

Central to discussions of multiculturalism and minority rights in modern liberal societies is the idea that the particular demands of minority groups contradict the requirements of equality, anonymity, and universality for citizenship and belonging. The contributors to this volume question the significance of this dichotomy between the universal and the particular, arguing that it reflects how the modern state has instituted the basic rights and obligations of its members and that these institutions are undergoing fundamental transformations under the pressure of globalization. They show that the social bonds uniting groups constitute the means of our freedom, rather than obstacles to achieving the universal