Life in late modernity is characterized by rapid institutional changes and the concomitant detraditionalization of social norms. Social changes of various sorts (technological, political, cultural, and economic) have led to the teasing/tearing apart of traditionally held and often comfortable constellations, such as stable congregations of language, community, and identity, or other predictable "global assemblages' involving the confluence of "territory, authority and rights' (Sassen 2006). As a result, individuals find it difficult, if not impossible, to rely on institutional structures and traditions to help make sense of social life (Beck 1992, 1994; Giddens 1991, 1992).