Late modernity

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Not to be confused with Late modernism.
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Late modernity (or liquid modernity) is the characterisation of highly developed present day societies as a continuation or development of modernity, (rather than as a distinct new state of post-modernity).

Late modernity is marked by global capitalist economies with increasing privatisation of services, and by the information revolution.[1]

Late modernity vs. postmodernity

Social theorists and sociologists such as Scott Lash, Ulrich Beck, Zygmunt Bauman and Anthony Giddens maintain (against postmodernists) that modernization continues into the contemporary era, which is thus better conceived as a radical state of late modernity.[2] On technological and social changes since the 1960s, the concept of "late modernity" proposes that contemporary societies are a clear continuation of modern institutional transitions and cultural developments. Such authors talk about a reflexive modernization process: in Giddens' words, "social practices are constantly examined and reformed in the light of incoming information about those very practices, thus constitutively altering their character".[3] Modernity now tends to be self-referring, instead of being defined largely in opposition to traditionalism, as with classical modernity.

Anthony Giddens does not dispute that important changes have occurred since "high" modernity, but he argues that we have not truly abandoned modernity. Rather, the modernity of contemporary society is a developed, radicalized, 'late' modernity — but still modernity, not postmodernity. In such a perspective, postmodernism appears only as a hyper-technological version of modernity.'[4]

Subjects

The subject is constructed in late modernity against the backdrop of a fragmented world of competing and contrasting identities [5] and life-style cultures.[6] The framing matrix of the late modern personality is the ambiguous way the fluid social relations of late modernity impinge on the individual, producing a reflexive and multiple self.[7]

Liquid modernity

Zygmunt Bauman, who introduced the idea of liquid modernity, wrote that its characteristics are the privatization of ambivalence and increasing feelings of uncertainty. It is a kind of chaotic continuation of modernity, where one can shift from one social position to another, in a fluid manner. Nomadism becomes a general trait of the liquid modern man, as he flows through his own life like a tourist, changing places, jobs, spouses, values and sometimes even more (such as political or sexual orientation), (self-)excluded from the traditional networks of support.

Bauman stressed the new burden of responsibility fluid modernism placed on the individual, with traditional patterns being replaced by self-chosen ones.[8] Entry into the globalized social was open to anyone with their own stance and the ability to fund it, in the same way as an old-fashioned caravanserai.[9] The result is a normative mindset dominated by an emphasis on shifting rather than staying — on provisional commitments[10] — which can lead a subject to a prison of their own existential creation.[11]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Anita Harris, Future Girl (2004) p. 3
  2. ↑ Marc Cools et al, Safety, Societal Problems and Citizens' Perceptions (2010) p. 88
  3. ↑ Giddens, in "Classical modernity and late modernity" (1990) p. 38
  4. ↑ R. Appignanesi et al, Postmodernism for Beginners (Cambridge 1995) p. 126 and p. 172
  5. ↑ Jennifer Craik, The Face of Fashion (London 1994) p. 8
  6. ↑ Kim Toffoletti, Baudrillard Reframed (London 2011) p. 75
  7. ↑ John Mandalios, Civilization and the Human Subject (1999) p. 2
  8. ↑ Zygmunt Bauman, Liquid Modernity (2000) p. 8
  9. ↑ Bauman, p. 23
  10. ↑ Adam Phillips, On Flirtation (London 1994) p. 124
  11. ↑ Richard Brown, in Neil Corcoran ed, Do you, Mr Jones? (London 2002) p. 196 and p. 219

Further reading

  • Ulrich Beck, Anthony Giddens and Scott Lash. 1994. Reflexive Modernization: Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order. Blackwell.
  • Beck, Ulrich. 1992. Risk Society. SAGE Publications.
  • Giddens, Anthony. 1991. The Consequences of Modernity. Stanford University Press.
  • Lash, Scott. 1990. The Sociology of Postmodernism. Routledge.
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