TRANSFORMATION AS BIOGRAPHICAL EXPERIENCE - PERSONAL DESTINIES OF EAST-BERLIN GRADUATES BEFORE AND AFTER UNIFICATION

The transformation of East German society can be seen as a contingent turning point in the life planning of individuals. It destabilized pro fessional careers and forced individuals to make unexpected choices un der conditions of great uncertainty and risk, for which their biograph ical experiences had not prepared them. Adaptation to the new social e nvironment was relatively successful, but was only accomplished at con siderable personal cost and/or a large amount of soul searching. A com parison of personal destinies before and after unification also sugges ts that political capital did not succeed in supplanting cultural capi tal in importance, and that autonomous life planning had not been elim inated in the socialist state, in spite of central planning and ideolo gical control. The broader context of German history and early sociali zation must be taken into account in order to make sense of personal c ontinuity across systemic changes. (C) Scandinavian Sociological Assoc iation 1998.