Modernity and Post modernity

• 7 key features of the modern/industrial period-

  1. Industrialisation was characterised along capitalist lines
  2. Social class was the major source of most people's identity
  3. Traditional social institutions had great influence over individual's identities
  4. Urbanisation occurred in search of factory jobs
  5. The government extended it's influence
  6. Meta narratives developed e.g. the sociological theories
• Features of the Post Modern World-

  -Primary and secondary sectors of work have declined

  -Globalisation is the norm

  -Metanarratives have lost their power (people become skeptical)

  -media saturated society
• Evaluation of postmodernism-

  -Exaggerates the degree of social and economic change

  -Ignores the fact that peoples consumption depends on their income

  -Social class still remains an important part of our identities
• Globalised world

  • we live a globalised world that's interconnected (late 20th century with technological, cultural, economic and political changes)
  • this has created a global village (Habermas) e.g. growth of modified extended families
• What do the changes in society indicate

  • The arrival of a postmodern society
  • This leaves society unstable, fragmented and media-saturated
• Bauman

  • postmodernism has meant that previous identifiers of people (gender, social class and ethnicity) are no longer enough to fully contain our identities
  • We have pick and mix identities
• Lyon

  • reject metanarratives e.g. Marxism and Functionalism
  • This is because there's no objective criteria to prove wether a theory is true
  • As society is changing so rapidly it can't be understood through the application of general theories