The new developments in methods of investigation constitute an important step in the implementation of a programme which seeks to open new horizons of research on Muslim societies. These will have to be defined for each selected theme by the project teams. Nevertheless, the teams may wish to reflect on the probability, that the periods of emergence and assertion of the individual were cyclical. The geographical area chosen as a field of inquiry only constitutes a single region when viewed from outside. Each of these entities has its own history and socio-cultural characteristics.
Individuals become part of society through processes of socialisation.
All societies produce a corpus of legal norms aimed at regulating the functioning of the social body. One of the basic objectives of the team should be to measure the margin of freedom of movement which state structures leave to the individual in Muslim societies. It therefore follows that these processes of individuation do not follow a uniform trajectory, and that there may be regression of individuation just as there exist economic discontinuance and involutions. However, the main issue is not to look at the individual in society in broad general terms, but to individuals as they relate to the process of economic change. To this field belongs also the study of the role of the individual initiative and its functions.