Modernity and Postmodernity

Unit 4 Modernity and Postmodernity:

What are modernity and modernism?

• 'Modern theories' actually link to the traditional theories - Marxism, functionalism and feminism all describe how society has changed
• Modernity is believed to have started around 1700 - when societies began industrialising
• Modernist views argue that life is fairly predictable, there is a one-way mass media (companies sell their brands and products to us, the common people) and it is fairly optimistic - trending to argue that society is improving over time.

Key features of modernity and modernist views:

• Industrialisation and the manufacture of standardised goods for a mass market
• Work and social class are the main forms of social class division and social identity
• Life is fairly orderly and predictable, and people have a fairly stable and clear idea of their position in society and where they are heading
• Societies are based on independent nation-states, national economies and national identities
• One-way mass media more or less reflects social reality
• An optimistic view is that the application of rational thought, science and technology could provide a means of controlling and improving the natural world.
• A view that sociological theory and research could provide insight into and explanations of the social world, and could be used to improve it.

How did this change to postmodernism? (this is up for debate)

• Postmodernists argue that the transition began in the 1980s - when some argued that modern theories were no longer applicable to society. Their ideas included:
• Rise of new media - no longer a one-way mass media, social media, online streaming, distorted reality.
• Rapid technological change - nuclear weapons, link to sue palmer toxic childhood.
• Globalisation and consumer culture meant traditional sources of class, gender, and ethnicity were becoming irrelevant to people's lives.
• Structures like family, work, and power of the nation-state were disintegrating - high divorce rates.
• Political parties of the past were less significant in people's lives. New social and political movements focused on culture, identity, and lifestyle are leading the way.
• These reflected their personal interests - environment, climate change, sexuality and sexual orientation, world peace, and globalisation.
• Social change meant people's lives were becoming more insecure and unpredictable.
• This decline in the faith of science has come to be seen as the causes of problems rather than the solutions.
• These changes challenged traditional modernist theories (functionalism, marxism, interactionism, feminism) and led to a view that society was moving from modernity to a new stage of postmodernity and new approaches and theories were needed to understand the changing world.

Comparison of Modernity and Postmodernity:

• Industrialisation and the use of technology to make standardised goods for a mass market - Rapid and continuous introduction of new goods and services, more choice. There is now a service economy. Jobs for life disappear - more job changes, part-time working. E.g. Amazon Prime next-day delivery, working from home
• More sources of identity for people is their class, people's identity (gender, sexuality) does not change - Media consumption has become the main source of identity. Bradley argues identity has become more fluid and fragmented, people can pick and mix their identities now.
• Culture reflects the class structure and often nationality of those involved, there is a distinction between mass popular culture and high culture - Culture has become more diverse and fragmented and people pick and mix elements from increasingly diverse global cultures.
• Politics centres around social class interests focused on political parties and government - Politics has become more personalised and linked to the diversity of the consumer, lifestyle and identity choices.

Chaos, uncertainty and the collapse of social structures:

• Postmodernists like Bauman stress that society is now in such a state of constant change that it is unpredictable and is marked by chaos and uncertainty - a state he referred to as liquid modernity - in which social structures like the nation-state, the family and social class are breaking down.
• Postmodernists argue that it is nonsense to talk of an institution called the family.
• For example, now people are living in such a wide range of ever-changing personal relationships.

The main 6 components of Postmodernism:

1. Globalisation:

• Globalisation means that the nation-state and national differences are becoming less significant in people's lives and the world is becoming increasingly interconnected
• People's lives are no longer rooted and embedded in and confined to local contexts but are lived in and influenced by the global framework (whether they realise it or not) unlimited by time and space
• Giddens from a late modernist perspective calls this disembedding - an example is the internet where we might interact with others, do online shopping etc.
• Technological changes like the internet, satellite TV and other new media, the increasing globalisation and interconnectedness of economies and the growth of supranational bodies like Coca-Cola, Microsoft, and Amazon are displacing nation states and national identities.
• Tourism, immigration, emigration, travel, migrant labour, undocumented workers, asylum seekers undermine national identities and national cultures are diluted as they increasingly become global cultures
• Consumer goods are now found in most countries of the world, largely based on Western cultures
• People now form identities around images and consumer lifestyles.
• Globalisation has meant that modernist sociology, formed around concepts such as structure, social class, gender, and ethnicity within the framework of the nation-state needs to be rejected or reformulated taking into account the new contexts of globalisation and global interconnectedness.
• This demonstrates the change from modernism to postmodernism

A02 Synoptic links:

Education: Increasing global influence in the education system, such as PISA rankings and education systems looking overseas to develop teaching, learning and assessment activities

Families: Where the ease of migration has meant that families have become more diverse, with many people living further away from their extended families than ever before and changes to what was once seen as the typical family (i.e. the nuclear family).

Crime: Pessimistic globalists argue that globalisation is happening but it is a negative feature of contemporary society. They believe that globalisation is largely westernisation or cultural imperialism leading to a homogeneous global society, that destroys local cultures – leading to terrorism

How does this prove we are living in a postmodern society?

• Globalisation was not a thing during the modern era. No travel, no migration. We were very much 'embedded' into society during modern society

2. Metanarratives (a critique of them) :

Lyotard (1984) described postmodernism as 'an incredulity towards metanarratives' and argued that people no longer believe in the 'myth of truth'

• Because society is now changing so constantly and so rapidly, societies can no longer be understood through the application of general theories or metanarratives.
• Metanarratives are 'big' theories, which try to explain all of society as a whole, but these no longer apply according to postmodernists because society has become fragmented into many different groups, lifestyles, interests,
• E.g. Marxism describes society as in conflict - capitalism and the bourgeoisie control the proletariat
• Postmodernists argue that they're too general – they can't be applied to today's society due to its chaotic nature
• There are too many groups and society is more fragmented
• E.g. not everyone who is W/C or M/C are on the same economic level – can you generalise a heterosexual working-class woman, to a lesbian or transgender working-class woman? As a sociologist, are we doing our jobs well if we generalise these groups?
• They argue that there has been a loss of faith in the superiority of rational thought and science as a means of progress and improvement in the world
• Science and technology often cause rather than solve problems such as climate change and pollution.

How does this prove we are living in a postmodern society?

Traditional theories (functionalism and Marxism) are no longer applicable to explaining contemporary society due to the chaotic and fluid nature

3. Choice, identity and consumption:

Lyotard suggests postmodern societies are characterised by growing individualism - there is now only a mass of individuals, with few social bonds connecting them, forming their identities through individual choices in education, health, personal relationships and lifestyle and the consumer goods we buy.

• Baudrillard called this 'the end of the social' = people can now form their own identities – can be whatever they want to be
• Postmodernist society involves a media-saturated consumer culture – individuals can pick 'n' mix and transform their identities + choices from a limitless range of constantly changing consumer goods and leisure activities, which are available from across the globe

A02 - Synoptic links:

• Pure relationship - Giddens
• Divorce Extended Family - Stacey
• Family diversity generally speaking
• Media and crime - cultural criminology - people now 'consume crime'.

How does this prove we are living in a postmodern society?

• People's choices in the modern era were limited. The extended family was dominant, religion was crucial to people's lives, there was a sense of collectivism rather than an emphasis on individualism

4. Pick 'n' mix identities:

• Baudrillard (2001) sees life as involving the search for satisfaction of media-created desires + pressure to consume
• Individual identity is no longer formed by factors such as class, ethnicity or gender
• Now formed by information, images and signs – designer labels etc
• In a globalised popular culture, the media present to us a massive choice of lifestyles, images and identities drawn from across the world
• Bradley argues that new identities are created by globalisation, bringing different cultural groups into contact.
• People can now adopt different identities based on consumer lifestyles to meet the diversity in their lives
• They pick 'n' mix = identity now formed from the above + sport, fashion, music, dress, leisure

How does this prove we are living in a postmodern society?

• People's choices in the modern era were limited. The extended family was dominant, religion was crucial to people's lives, there was a sense of collectivism rather than an emphasis on individualism

5. You are what you buy:

Bauman (1996) argues that life in postmodern society resembles a shopping mall where people can stroll around consuming whatever they like - trying out, constructing and changing whatever identities they choose.

• People buy goods not for their usefulness, but as identity symbols for their image and the impression of themselves they wish to project to others.
• In this postmodern pick 'n' mix consumer society, people can be whatever they want to be – adopting lifestyles and identities from around the world, building them around the almost unlimited choice of leisure activities and consumer goods available in what has become a globalised consumer market.

A02 synoptic link:

• Crime and deviance = criminals 'consume crime to show off'

How does this prove we are living in a postmodern society?

• People's choices in the modern era were limited. The extended family was dominant, religion was crucial to people's lives, and there was a sense of collectivism rather than an emphasis on individualism.

6. Media saturated society:

Mass media used to just reflect basic society. It now dominates and distorts the way we see the world.

• Baudrillard argues that in the postmodern era, we are so dominated by media imagery that it has become what he calls 'media-saturated'
• Baudrillard suggests the media present 'simulacra' = images which appear to reflect events in the real world but have no basis in reality and which are viewed simultaneously across the globe
• Even images of real events are so distorted and distanced from reality that they actually replace reality
• E.g. the reality of a missile hitting its target is not shown to the viewer
  • = no blood, none of the suffering going on sanitised version being shown
• Air of unreality about the news – we can't distinguish them from Hollywood movies. Also – scripted reality TV
• Baudrillard calls this distorted view of the world which is actually created and defined by the media hyperreality. The media image of an event becomes more real than the reality it is meant to be depicting

A02 Synoptic links:

Air of unreality about the news - we can't distinguish them from Hollywood movies.

• Scripted reality TV.

How does this prove we are living in a postmodern society?

• There was a one-way mass media which did not distort reality.

A03 - Evaluation of postmodernist theory:

Strengths:

• Highlighted some important cultural changes – particularly in the areas of the media, culture and identity
• It emphasises that the construction of people's identities is now fluid and complex – pick 'n' mix based on consumer lifestyles and media. It cannot be reduced to simply a response to social structural factors
• Provides insight into most contemporary social changes, such as globalisation + the growing power of the media
• Challenges metanarratives – can functionalism/Marxism still be relevant now? More reflection is needed

Weaknesses:

• It doesn't offer a vision for improving society – it is all criticism and reflection
• Over-emphasises the role of the media – people don't do everything the media says and aren't as passive as suggested
• It exaggerates the scale of cultural change – nuclear families are still common, and people's class, gender and nationality can still be a major influence
• It is too voluntaristic – it ignores the role of powers in society and social inequalities
• It argues that the traditional theories are metanarratives but postmodernism is a metanarrative too!

Are we living in late modernity rather than postmodernity?

Critiques of postmodernism?

1. Giddens - late modernity and reflexivity:

• He does not dispute the fact that society has changed due to globalisation and the ever-changing identities people are constructing

• He agrees that there are no more traditional ways – we now live in a 'runaway world' and a 'risk society' However

• He states that these changes are a continuation of modern society in an intensified form, and have not brought us into a new era of postmodernity

• Instead, he calls it late modernity or high modernity

• We should therefore adapt, not abandon, traditional sociological theories

2. Giddens continued:

• He sees late modernity as characterised by what he calls social reflexivity (knowledge we gain from society can affect the way we act in it
• Individuals and social institutions face greater uncertainty in a world where established customs and values have weakened = reflexivity is more important now than ever
• Everything is unstable and life becomes full of risks e.g. nuclear accidents, economic crises, climate change, diseases
• Now = people have to think about their choices more than ever
• Reflexivity allows this to occur = it gives people AND institutions a greater capacity to act and plan rationality to change and improve the world = this is an element of modernity!

3. Beck - Risk society + reflexive modernity:

• Beck (1992) is another theorist of late modernity who suggests there is a new phase of modernity – 'the second modernity' or the 'reflexive modernity'
• In this, there are high levels of uncertainty and risk in what he calls a 'risk society'
• These risks occur in our everyday lives/institutions e.g. the family (rising divorce rates/diversity of personal relationships)
• Also shown in failings of science and technology progress – pollution, climate change etc
• Different to the past where stuff was out of our control – now man-made. But if we can create the problems, we can fix them e.g. through science, which is a feature of modernity
• Agrees with Giddens about reflexivity – we now need to work together to resolve problems +, therefore, change society
• To do this, we must adapt traditional theories
• People don't trust authorities and governments anymore = this is why people are becoming more individualised and making their own choices/taking their own risks e.g. Covid

4. Harvey - Marxism

• Harvey (1990) suggests many of the changes to a PM society can be explained by modernist theories like Marxism E.g. globalisation, rapid culture change, and individualisation of identity reflect capitalism opening up to new markets
• Therefore, postmodernism isn't a thing and instead, traditional/modern theories can be used to explain society

Overall arguments from the critiques:

• Giddens, Beck and Harvey suggest there has been change and everyday life is breaking free from tradition and custom, it is more fluid and chaotic
• But the distinction between modernity and postmodernity is exaggerated
• What is called postmodernism is just modernity developing, and the changes can be explained by adapting sociological theories such as Marxism, or developing new theories such as Giddens and Beck