modernity, late modernity, postmodernity, globalisation

Question 1

modernity sociologists

Answer 1

Marx, Durkheim, Weber

Question 2

modernity key concepts

Answer 2

The scientific discoveries of Galileo, Newton and others of the 16C and 17C inspired a philosophical and movement called the Enlightenment

Two key features of the enlightenment project

a belief in the ability of human reason to provide an understanding of the word

faith in the ability of human beings to use this understanding to improve the world

Question 3

3 key features of modernity

Answer 3

1 - economic - the dominance of industrial capitalism

2 - political - consolidation of the nation-state and liberal democracy

3 - cultural - stress on reason rather than traditional

Question 4

modernity explained

Answer 4

the radical and rapid social changes led thinkers to try to understand how things happened

influenced by modernity - the first sociologists tried to apply reason and science to study society

however unlike natural sciences - no overall agreement

Question 5

modernity evaluations

Answer 5

many believe theories outdated - refer to a world that has been eclipsed by globalisation and postmodernity

rationalisation and progress was not always a good thing - Bauman highlighted how the holocaust was a specifically modernist action

not all groups benefitted equally from enlightenment - science and rationality used to reinforce male power

Question 6

postmodernist sociologists

Answer 6

Bauman, Lyotard, Baudrillard

Question 7

postmodernism key features

Answer 7

collapse of social structures

social structures are like nation-state, the family and social class are breaking down

metanarratives and myth of truth
Lyotard - postmodernism has an incredulity towards metanarratives and people no longer believe in the myth of trust - too fragmented

media-saturated society
Baudrillard - life dominated by media imagery - surrounded by images to reflect things in the real world but have no basis in reality

hyperreality
Baudrillard - distorted view created and defined by the media becomes more real than reality

pick and mix identities
Baudrillard - identity formed by information, images and signs gained from media rather than class, ethnicity or gender
Bradley - globalisation brings different cultures into contact and creates new identities

Question 8

postmodernism evaluation

Answer 8

marxist criticisms - Philo and Miller
- encourages political apathy - denies the existence of an objective reality that can be analysed and improved
- ignores growing inequalities of wealth and income
- Baudrillard’s arguments do not take into account reality that decisions made by politicians

postmodernist arguments are highly abstract and not based on systematic research - unable to produce much evidence to support theories

Question 9

postmodernist connection with research methods

Answer 9

• reject belief that researchers can ever discover some objective truth about social world - believe that all can be done is to examine social world from different viewpoints
• reject traditional quantitative and qualitative researchers that it is possible to determine the truth about society
• the methods are used most frequently by postmodernists is ethnography - immerse themselves in the lives of participants and try to understand their viewpoints

Question 10

globalisation and high modernity - key sociologists

Answer 10

Giddens, Beck, Sklair, Ohmae, Urry

Question 11

globalisation and high modernity - explains

Answer 11

Sklair - transnational corporations - organisations that transcend the borders of nation states
global capitalist class - a tiny and powerful group of TNCs - increasing division of world into global bourgeoisie and global proletariat

Ohmar - borderless world - globally interlinked economy that transcends nation states

Urry - disorganised capitalism - fragmentation of socio-economic groups in the economy, state of advances capitalism - organised interaction and labour broken down due to recession

Question 12

globalisation and high modernity - key features

Answer 12

Technological changes - satellite communications and internet allowed for shrinking of time and space - time-space compression - Harvey

Economic changes - movement from a physical to an electronic economy instead of physical eg yb

Transnational companies operate across national boundaries

Political changes - TNCs and consumers have more economic power than national governments so that we live in a borderless world of disorganised capitalism

Cultural changes - new technology, the mass media, geographic mobility and TNCs create increasingly global culture

Question 13

Late / High modernity

Answer 13

Giddens - high moderinty
- societies can be understood, explained and improved
- rejects argument we moved into completely new era
- societies based upon the modern characteristic of reflexivity and disembedding
reflexivity - traditional and custom no longer serve as guides to how we should act - makes society unstable
disembedding - lifting out of social relations from local contexts of interaction - factors such as credit break down and geographical barriers and make interaction more personal

Beck - risk society - condition of late modern society characterised by manufactured risks
individualisation - our actions no longer governed by traditional but are reflexive
reflexive modernisation - we constantly take into account the risks attached to different courses of action open to us

Question 14

late / high modernity evaluation

Answer 14

• not everyone has free choice implied by Gidden’s concept of flexivity eg poor exposed to more environmental risks in heavily polluted areas

marxists - capitalism produces risk rather than technology due to pursuit of profit

Question 15

postmodern marxist

Answer 15

Harvey
- product of most recent stage of capitalism
flexible accumulation - new way of achieving profitability characterised by a requirement for workers are to be flexible to fit their employers’ needs
time and space compression

we are moving towards postmodern era
marxism - used to understand postmodernity - possible to improve society through rainbow coalitions

Question 16

postmodernist marxism eval

Answer 16

do not offer the possibility of revolution - accept that society is too fragmented to build meaningful political opposition

Question 17

applied postmodernism

Answer 17

religion

pick and mis identities also applied to religious beliefs - evidence of rise in personal spirituality alongside a rejection of organised religion - people take parts of different religions to create a form of religiosity that works for them

Question 18

modernity key 4

Answer 18

the development of a nation-state - the development of territory rules by centralised state

the development of an economic system based on capitalism

the rise of rational, secular and scientific ways of thinking

the growth of individualism

Question 19

modern society - what is it

Answer 19

first emerged in western europe from about late 18th C

Question 20

modern society - the development of a nation-state

Answer 20

bounded territory ruled by a powerful centralised state

• population shared language and culture
• modern world made up of series of separate societies each with its own state

state is focus point of modern society - organising social life on a national basis

• modern states created large administrative bureaucracies and educational, welfare and legal institutions to regulate their citizen’s lives

nation-state source of identity eg flag

Question 21

modernity - development of an economic system based on capitalism

Answer 21

economy of modern societies is capitalist - based on private ownership of means of production and use of wage labourers

• brought about industrialisation with increases in wealth - distribution is unequal, resulting in class conflict

the nation-state important in regulating capitalism and maintaining the conditions

Lash and Urry - organised capitalism - nation state becoming important in regulating capitalism and maintaining the conditions under which it operates

Question 22

modernity - rise of rational, secular and scientific ways of thinking

Answer 22

rational, secular and scientific ways of thinking dominate
influence of magico-religious explanations declines

technically efficient forms of organisation eg bureaucracies and factories, dominate social and economic life

science becomes increasingly important in industry, medicine and communications

Question 23

modernity - growth of individualism

Answer 23

tradition, custom and ascribed status less important

experience greater personal freedom and can increasingly choose our own course in life and define our own identity

however - structural inequalities such as class remain important in identity

Question 24

globalisation

Answer 24

the increasing interconnectedness of people across national boundaries

we live in one interdependent global village and our lives are shaped by a global framework

Question 25

globalisation - technological changes

Answer 25

now cross entire continents in a matter of hours, exchange information across the globe with the click of a mouse

satellite communications, the internet and global television - time-space compression

Beck - we are now living in a risk society where increasingly the threats to our well being come from human-made technology than natural disasters

Question 26

globalisation - economic changes

Answer 26

economic activity now takes place within a set of global networks that are creating ever-greater interconnectedness

global economy is increasingly a weightless or electronic society - no longer physical goods

in the electronic economy, money never sleeps - global 24-hour financial transactions permit the instantaneous transfer of funds around the world - contributes to risk society

trans-national companies - coca-cola Sklair - form separate global capitalist class

Question 27

globalisation - political changes

Answer 27

some sociologists claim that globalisation has undermined the power of the nation-state

Ohmae - we now live in a borderless world which TNCs and consumers have more economic power than national goernments

Lash and Urry - disorganised capitalism as states less able to regulate the activities of large capitalist enterprises

Question 28

globalisation - changes in culture and identity

Answer 28

harder for cultures to exist in isolation from one another

major reason for this is the role of information and communications in technology

now live in a global culture - western-owned media companies spread western culture to rest of world eg nike

Question 29

postmodernism

Answer 29

major intellectual movement emerged since 1970s - influential in many areas including sociology

now living in a new era of postmodernity - unstable, fragmented, media-saturated global village

reject meta-narratives such as marxism on the grounds that they have helps to create oppressive

Lyotard - in postmodern society - knowledge is just a series of different language games - competing views of truth preferable to modern society

Question 30

baudrillard - simulacra

Answer 30

knowledge is central to postmodern society

argues that society is no longer based on the production of material goods but rather buying and selling knowledge in the form of images and signs

signs stand for nothing other than themselves - called them simulacra

eg tabloid newspaper articles about fictitious soap opera characters are signs about signs

hyper-reality - signs appear more real than reality itself