June 30, 1997
Modernity
The Structure of Modern Societies
For sociologists, and therefore the subject that is sociology, to gain any ground in the study of society, the social sciences, like the sciences (but only like the sciences), have to set some ground rules in order to maintain continuity within a subject. One of those areas is deciding on a definition of what modern society is and how it is characterised. The term for this is modernity.
Modernity is that distinct and unique form of social life which characterises modern societies. Modern societies began to emerge in Europe from about the fifteenth century, but modernity in the sense used here could hardly be said to exist in any developed form until the idea of the modern was given a decisive formulation in the discourse of the Enlightenment during the eighteen century. In the nineteenth century, modernity became identified with industrialism and the sweeping social, economic and cultural changes associated with it. In the Twentieth century, several non-European societies — for example Australia and Japan — joined the company of advanced industrial societies, and thus modernity became a progressively global phenomenon
Modernity has had a long and complex historical evolution. It was constructed by a number of historical processes coming together in unique historical circumstances. These processes were the political (the rise of the secular state and polity), the economic (the global capitalist economy), the social (formation of classes and other divisions of labour) and the cultural (the change from a religious to a secular culture). Modernity can be described as the sum of all these different processes. No single process was sufficient to produce it on its own. Modernity was shaped by both internal and external forces. The West created its identity and interests through unequal exchange (material and cultural) with the 'Rest' — the excluded, conquered, colonised and exploited 'other.'
Modernity can be characterised by a group of institutions, each with its own pattern of change and development, including: the nation-state and an international system of states; an expansionist capitalist economic order based on private property and a division of labour; industrialism; large-scale bureaucracy; the dominance of secular, materialist, rationalist and individualist cultural values; and the official separation of the 'private' and the 'public.' Capitalist relations continue to provide modernity with their economic dynamic for growth and expansion and changing thought forms of mass production. Industrial capitalism has produced patterns of social inequality: in particular, distinctive class, race and gender relations based on those who own and control the means of production and those who only have their labour to sell. These divisions have persisted over time while becoming more complicated as a result of ever changing patterns of consumption and social strata.
Modern societies are increasingly characterised by their complex nature; by the proliferation of consumer products and by a variety of lifestyles. Tradition has weakened in favour of individual choice and creating one's own lifestyle and identity, which is viewed as changeable and flexible. A consequence of this, however, is the need for more and more institutions and organisations to regulate this new found pluralism, particularly in connection with political pluralism. Power is part of all modern social relations; and social struggles — between classes, social movements and other groups — are inscribed into the organisation of society as well as the structures and policies of the state. Modern states are large, interventionist, administratively bureaucratic and complex systems of power which intervene to organise large areas of social life. Liberal democracy in its contemporary form is the prevailing type of political regime in the industrial societies. It is partly the result of the struggle between different social groupings and interests, and partly the result of opportunities and constraints created by power politics and economic competition in national and international arenas. Socialism, an alternative to the predominantly capitalist path to modernity, developed historically in a number of different forms. State socialism, the comprehensive attempt to substitute central planning for the market and the state for the autonomous associations of civil society, is nearly everywhere on the retreat. Social democracy, the attempt to regulate the market and social organisation in the name of greater social justice and welfare, continues to enjoy widespread support, especially in parts of Europe. Yet it is also an intensively contested project which has had both its aims and strategies questioned, particularly during the 1980s with the rise of the 'new-right' of Thatcherism and Reaganism.
Globalisation, a process reaching back to the earliest stages of modernity, continues to shape and reshape politics, economics and culture at an accelerated pace and scale. The extension of globalising processes, operating through a variety of institutional dimensions (technological, organisational, administrative, cultural and legal), and their increased intensification within these spheres, creates new forms and limits within modernity as a distinctive form of life. But to what extent is this ongoing development of modernity, through globalisation, intensifying the above political, economic, social and cultural relations? On a global scale do the structures which make up the modern nation-state exist in order to form a global form of modernity? Can there be a form of high-modernity on an international scale, where global institutions and international regimes exist to act administratively to maintain a form of status quo between all states? Or are we witnessing the fragmentation of modernity and the birth of post-modernity, where all forms of society are formed by adapting existing structures on a short term basis, where the culture of society is more concerned with both the now and an idealised past at the same time?
From and inspired by. Hall, S. Held, D. and McGrew, T. (1992) Modernity & its Futures, Cambridge, Polity Press & The Open University.
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Sociology
