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Modernity and Postmodernity

Modernity and Postmodernity. Order versus Fluidity Clear Distinctions versus Negotiable Meaning Predictability versus Uncertainty Rational Progress versus Playfulness Control versus Uncertainty

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Modernity and Postmodernity

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  1. Modernity and Postmodernity • Order versusFluidity • Clear Distinctions versus Negotiable Meaning • PredictabilityversusUncertainty • Rational Progressversus Playfulness • Control versusUncertainty • Future-orientation versusPresent-orientation • Production versusConsumption • Experts versus Gurus • etc. etc • Is there a Third Way?

  2. The Sociological Tradition(s) • Sociology is the study of: • persisting patterns or structures external to individuals re Marx, Durkheim, Foucault, Bourdieuetc etc power and constraint • OR • The purposeful actions of human beings re Weber, Simmel, ethnomethodologyetc etc meaning and decision-making • Is there a Third Way

  3. Lord Anthony Giddens (1938-) • A globally recognised British social theorist • Considerable political and cultural influence • Typically associated with attempts to reconcile apparently opposed ways of thinking in both Sociology and practical politics • Still alive • The Third Way?

  4. Structuration Theory - Topics Action and Structure Key Term - Agency Key Term – Structure Key Term – Structuration (agency+structure) Consciousness & Society Time & Space

  5. Structuration Theory -goal • To overcome the opposition between the two traditions. This requires: • Action is not equated with individual human activity: re. Weber • Structure is not identified with external constraint: re. Durkheim • Men make their own history but not in circumstances of their own choosing:Marx

  6. Key terms – not action but agency • AGENT = any social unit that is capable of making a difference. • Source: Giddens • i.e. agent ≠ only human individuals • AGENCY the continuous flow of conduct. • Source: Dallmayr • i.e. agency ≠ events just in the here-and-now

  7. Key terms - structure • STRUCTURE(S):rules and resources, or sets of transformation relations, organized as properties of social systems • SYSTEM(S):reproduced relations between actors or collectivities, organised as regular social practices • Source: Giddens, A ‘The constitution of society’ p.25 • Structure is the “objectification of past actions of past agents” (re Berger & Luckman) • Source: Dallmayr

  8. Key terms -Structuration • Agency and Structure (aretherefore)mutually dependant...Structure is the medium through which (agency) is produced” • Source: Giddens Central Problems in Social Theory, page 69-70 • Duality of Structuresmeans that social structures are both constituted by human agency and yet at the same time are the very medium of this constitution • Source: Giddens New Rules of Sociological Method, page 121 • Structuration (is a)connecting of human action with structural explanation in social analysis • Source: Giddens Central Problems in Social Theory page 49

  9. Edmund Burke (1729-1797) • What is the relationship of an MP to their constituents? • x Delegateone who follows the instruction of others • √ Representative one who uses their judgement on behalf of others to whom he/she is accountable. • Structuration Theory As agents we use our practical understanding (phenomenology) and the resources of the social structure (Bourdieu et al) to construct social reality

  10. Instance – International Migration • Goss, J. Conceptualising international labor migration International Migration Review 1995 • Filipinos migrate overseas to seek work • They are obligated to assist their kin; remittances • They recommend their kin to employers • Therefore, kinship structure takes on a new economic significance through the agency of migrants • AND the agency of migrants is constrained by the rules and relations (structure) of kinship • i.e. migration (agency) and kinship (structure) depend upon and affect each other

  11. Instance: Managerial Innovation • Coopey et al Manager’s Innovations… • Changing the situation (agency) • in context of constraints, rules and resources (structure) • through selecting among available courses of action (structuration) • and in changing the situation managers change their perception of themselves (reflexivity)

  12. Consciousness and Society • Practical Consciousness; taken-for-granted raelity • Discursive Consciousness; legitimation • Unconscious; unacknowledged motivations • make possible • Reflexivity the knowledgeability of agents (informed citizens/klever burgher) • but there is also • Sequestration the institutionalised hiding away/separation of different spheres of personal life • Therefore, • intentional agency has unintended consequences

  13. Time & Space • Agency is constituted (constructed) through time and space • Schutz on predecessors, contemporaries and successors • The problem of ‘infinite regress’ in structuration theory

  14. Modernity and Postmodernity • Order versusFluidity • Clear Distinctions versus Negotiable Meaning • PredictabilityversusUncertainty • Rational Progressversus Playfulness • Control versusUncertainty • Future-orientation versusPresent-orientation • Production versusConsumption • Experts versus Gurus • etc. etc • Is there a Third Way?

  15. High Modernity • Continues the processes of modernity eg rationalisation, urbanisation, technological advance etc (modern culture) • But, because of its own reflexivity, (self-examination of its practices) high modernity increases uncertainty through accelerating change (postmodern culture) • High Modernity as Jagernnath(Reith lecture)

  16. Modernity & Time • High Modernity = a changed relationship to time becausemodernity is institutionally reflexive • Cause:De-traditionalisation The loss of the legitimating authority of tradition. This is part of the process of modernisation. A respectful, deferential attitude towards the collective past is replaced by a sense of loss, ‘nostalgia’ and, re consumer images, ‘heritage’. • Source: adapted from Giddens, A. Consequences of modernity • Re also Bellah Habits of the heart

  17. Modernity and Space • High Modernity = a changed relationship to space which both expands and contracts • Cause: Disembeddingthe "lifting out" of social relations from local contexts and their rearticulation across indefinite tracts of time-space • Source: Giddens 'Modernity & Self-Identity' p.18

  18. The Problem of Order as the Problem of Trust in High Modernity • Ontological SecurityA sense of continuity and order in events, including those not directly within the perceptual environment of the individual • Source Giddens, A Modernity and Self-identity p.243 (emphasis added) • Trusttrust in others ….is at the origin of the experience of a stable external world and a coherent sense of self-identity. It is 'faith' in the reliability and integrity of others that is at stake here…trust, interpersonal relations and a conviction of the 'reality' of things go hand in hand in the social settings of adult life • Source: Giddens 'Modernity & Self-Identity' p.51-52

  19. Trust & Expertise • expert systems bracket time and space through deploying modes of technical knowledge which have validity independent of the practitioners and clients who use them • Source: Giddens 'Modernity & Self-Identity' p.18 • That is, we no longer trust persons but systems of which we know little

  20. High Modernity as Risk Society • In the charged reflexive settings of high modernity, living on 'automatic pilot' becomes more and more difficult to do • Source: Modernity & self-identity p.125 • living in the "risk society" means living with a calculative attitude to the open possibilities of action, positive and negative, with which, as individuals and globally, we are confronted in a continuous way • Source: Giddens 'Modernity & Self-Identity' p.28

  21. Risk and Hazard • Giddens (possibly) confuses these terms • Risk = likelihood of particular outcomes • Hazard = damage of particular outcomes • Arguably: • Traditional societies = high risk, low hazard • High Modernity = low risk, high hazard

  22. Risk Society • A society organised (structure) around the management of man-made (agency) risks • We attempt to control (structure) risk through both personal and institutional risk assessment (agency) but this itself is inherently risky (i.e. less than reliable) • The Risk Society produces and distributes both ‘goods’ (things, commodities) and ‘bads’ (risks resulting from, in part, the production of goods) (Beck)

  23. Giddens & Beck • Giddens typical focus is on the risks of intimacy and the fragility of contemporary self-identity • Beck’stypical focus is on the risks of large scale processes e.g. environmental degradation, nuclear disaster • Re-opening the agency/structure divide?

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