Understanding modernity

Understanding modernity

Modernity is one of the most important concepts that you will come across when it comes to studying sociology. The terms modernity and modernisation are used to describe the complex range of phenomenon associated with these changes that separated contemporary society from previous (traditional) societies.

Specifically, modernity refers to the various characteristics I will describe while modernisation refers to the many processes that take a society along this path.

This blog is a simple introduction to the concept and in later blogs I will expand on some of the ideas. It will hopefully provide you some insights into this phenomenon. As these are listed, it is important to understand that modernity transformed both the structures and relationships of the world, and while it was concentrated in Europe, its effects were far reaching. This also transformed the way we see the world and learn.

Key thinkers of modernity focussed on attempting to understand the forces that shape contemporary life: that is, key features and social trends that have shaped society in the past, and shape our lives today and most likely to continue to shape society into the future. The thinkers who started researching these areas include August Comte, Karl Marx, Max Weber and Emile Durkheim. They wanted to understand how societies moved from pre-industrial to modern societies, and what the future was likely to be.

Now the exact time we moved from pre-modern to modern societies is open to different views, but the starting point most often favoured is the beginning of the industrial revolution. These changes were described by Karl Polyani (1958) as the 'great transformation' of western societies.


The ten key dimensions of modernity are as follows:

1. Rationality
The first important characteristic of modernity is that society should be organised under 'rational' lines rather than according to tradition. That is, at one time, societies used to organise themselves according to tradition: women raised children because that was the tradition. No we have 'rationality', or rational principles. These principles emphasise the use of logic, observation, scientific principle and experimentation as the basis of what to believe and the actions to take.


2. A 'belief' in science
Implicit in the belief that the world should become more rational is a belief in science and scientific method. As a result, science has become one of the core guiding principles in our society. We build houses and buildings based on scientific knowledge not traditional processes. Medicine has become a dominant way that we see our lives – what we eat, how we exercise and issues of hygiene. But this has not always been the case.


3. The nation state
Modernity has also seen the nation-state as the key organising principle and political organisation of our lives. On pre-modern times, boundaries between social groups were quite fluid and open to dispute. Modernity has brought the emergence of nation states with (generally) fixed and stable borders, and accompanied by strong centralised governments that have the ultimate military power within its borders. This type of social organisation was vital for the development of capital and industry. This is closely linked with the rise and development of bureaucracy and the intrusion of the state into the daily lives of its citizens – the focus of the research undertaken by Max Weber (which I will probably discuss at sometime in the future).

4. The emergence of 'class' structures
The key theorist here is Karl Marx, who argued that what separates modern (capitalist) societies from other social orders and what brings us to modern life is that people do not produce goods for their own consumption but for markets and for profit. Up until the emergence of modern societies, most things were produced for consumption with the excess traded. But this changed under conditions of modernity as people began to make extra produce specifically to sell and make a profit. This caused a split in society in two: the bosses (or the owners of the factors of production) and the workers (those who had to work for a living).

5. The belief in 'progress'
If we think about pre-modern societies, life moved in cycles often relying on weather patterns and seasons. But under conditions of modernity, human beings and societies are believed to be evolving or progressing to a 'better' state, which can deal with injustice, poverty and inequality. This is associated with a long-term belief that all societies will become democratic, and that certain 'freedoms' will become universal. But as we also discussed last week, this is not something that is universally accepted.

6. The rise of the individual and freedom
The sixth dimension of modernity is the rise of the individual and individualism. A key dimension of the move from traditional to modern life was the idea that you as an individual could make choices. Where once all your life choices were bound by tradition. Once, as women, your role was assigned as mother, home-maker, and care giver. I am not saying that there are still not power relationships that do not limit your choices, what I am saying is that now at least the very idea of 'life choice' exists. This concept of choice is reflected in many ways in our contemporary society – not only with the emergence of life choices but also with the idea of consumption and consumer choice. As individual consumers, we are not bound by one choice, but pick how we want to consume. Our roles on consumers of leisure, for example, may be 'masculine' or feminine.

7. Self expression and identity
The move from traditional societies to modern ones was also supposed to allow us the ability to for our own identities and express these the way we wanted to. So your identity was basically dependent on your birth. The move from traditional societies to modern ones was also supposed to allow us the ability to for our own identities and express these the way we wanted to. There are a number of ways to do this: through your choice of career but also fashion and what you buy.

8. Expression of culture in the negotiation of power
Modern life is also is awash with signs, images and meanings. Most obviously it involves the aestheticisation of our lives through commodities and advertising, packaging and so on. Much of these images actually create issues around power. So, that is, in modern societies, power is expressed in a number of ways. While it is also portrayed through guns, armies and force, it also emerges through symbols that show you what is preferred, establishing unequal power relationships. One example I is the idea of happy families in advertising that encourages how comfortable we fill in our environment. Think of any advertising and ask yourself, what is the image – the skin colour, body shape, good looks – and think about how that makes you feel about who you are. How many veiled newsreaders are there? How many indigenous faces are portrayed on packaging? There is a specific hierarchy of happiness and authenticity in modern society that is embedded within broader society.

9. Control
This then takes us to the issue of 'control'. Once you free people from tradition, their choices are always an area of concern for the governing elites. The ninth characteristic of modern society is that we are meant to have control over lives, but the issue is, we cannot have too much choice because this threatens the stability of society. So choice exists but it is within boundaries. Even today there is a great deal of debate about how leisure time should be spent, the work-life balance is constantly in the news, how much alcohol we drink and so on.

10. The private sphere
The final dimension discussed f the gap between the public and private sphere: that is, in modern societies we separate what is public and what is private – though this is a division that keeps on moving. This clear division has existed to a degree throughout history, but we have never there are two differences. The first is that we have never lived in urban centres before – meaning that privacy and being surrounded by strangers has never been such an important issue. The second issue, and even more important, is the fact that there are many choices we make that are, at least in principle, unconstrained. That is, no one has the right to tell you how to spend your money or your leisure time. But this issue of the private sphere actually creates an interesting challenge: that sometimes what suits the private is actually problematic for the public. Think of the discussion around greenhouse emissions. Each of us chooses to drive and to use a heater or air conditioner at home. This is our private choice and right. But the impacts on the broader community are leading to climate change and actually challenging the very infrastructures which hold our communities together.


That is a quick summary of the characteristics of modernity: I will add some more stuff on the complexities of modernity at some later date.

As always, feedback welcome

Cheers, j

References
- Arvanitakis, J. (2009) Contemporary Society, Oxford University Press, Melbourne
- Slater, D. (1997) Consumer Culture and Modernity, Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
- Van Krieken et al (2006) Sociology: Themes and perspectives, Pearson Education Australia, Frenches Forest