Second modernity

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Second modernity is a phrase coined by the German sociologist Ulrich Beck, and is his word for the period after modernity. Re-modernity is a re-naissance of modernity through realization that we cannot control all risks. Politics, science, religion, these were all systems that promised us that they could protect us from the risks we face in our lives. Current American politics, for instance, still promises that they can end terrorism and drug problems, even though these problems are extremely complex and global problems.

In second modernity we realize that these systems are part of the problem, not the solution, if there even is one. Finally realising that this is the case, we can re-asses the situation and try to come up with solutions that incorporate the ideas about our inability to find permanent, perfect solutions.

The "solution" according to Beck, though, is a "cosmopolitan realpolitik" in which we recognize this dilemma.