PART I - THE SOCIETY OF INDIVIDUALS (1939) - discusses the ambiguity of the notion of society, & the extent of the individual's role in deciding the direction of society, noting both the inter- & independence of the two. PART II - PROBLEMS OF SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE IMAGE OF MAN (1940s-1950s) - argues that although individuals make possible the existence & function of societies, the actions of individuals do not effect historical changes. While acknowledging the lack of conceptual models explaining how a person can simultaneously be an individual & an active member of society, it is argued that an individual & society are not separate, independent entities, explaining that people did not come to understand themselves as individuals at the same time until the growth of commercialization & the formation of states; this new human consciousness led to a differentiation between the "self" & the "world." PART III - CHANGES IN THE WE-I BALANCE (1987) - considers the evolution of the concepts of "individual" & "society," noting that their modern-day conceptions have grown out of different stages of our society's social development. Thus, the relatively recent tendency to view individuals & society as antithetical concepts should be questioned, as should the idea that the "I-identity" takes precedence over the "we-identity." In fact, the "we-I balance" can undergo several changes throughout the stages of a person's life. M. Malas 

source: Sociological Abstracts