Globalisation, modernity & postmodernity (P1/3) Flashcards
(24 cards)
Describe modernist theories
believe that society can progress through human reason (the idea of the Enlightenment project), and use science and rationality to gain true knowledge of the world to improve it. They also believe we live in modern society, which emerged in Western Europe in the late 1700s. It has several characteristics: The nation state; capitalism; rationality, science and tech; individualism
Describe the characteristics of modernist societies
*The nation-state is the key political unit- a bounded territory ruled by a centralised state whose pop usually shares the same lang and culture. It organises life on a national basis, and has created large admin bureaucracies and educational, welfare and legal institutions to regulate our lives. It also provides identity, through flags, national anthems, etc.
*Capitalism- economic model in modern societies & while it creates wealth, it’s unequally shared - state helps to maintain and control it - Lash & Urry = ‘organised capitalism.’ Production is organised on Fordist principles: mass production of standardised items using low skilled labour. Cheap, mass produced consumer goods lead to higher standards of living.
*Rationality, science and tech dominate, w/ the influence of religion declining. Efficient forms of org like bureaucracies and factories dominate social and economic life. Science becomes more important.
*Individualism increases as tradition, custom and ascribed status become less important. We have more personal freedom in our lives and over our identities. However, inequalities like class remain important in constructing our identities and restricting our choices.
What 4 changes caused globalisation?
Technological
Economic
Political
Culture & identity
Describe the following change that caused globalisation: Technological
things such as improved air travel and communications tech have contributed to globalisation - TV, the internet and satellite.
Tech creates a ‘risk society’ (Beck, 1992) in which we are threatened by our own tech e.g. mass production contributing to global warming.
Describe the following change that caused globalisation: Economic
The global economy is increasingly an electronic economy: instead of producing physical goods, much activity involves the production of info, such as TV shows.
Money can now be transferred from one country to another electronically- contributes to the ‘risk society’.
The rise of TNCs has also influenced globalisation: they operate in many countries and produce on a global scale. Some argue that the people who run TNCs are so powerful that they form a separate global capitalist class.
Describe the following change that caused globalisation: Political
globalisation has weakened the power of nation-states, and that we now live in a ‘borderless’ world in which TNCs and consumers now have more economic power than govs.
States have less power to regulate large capitalist enterprises.
Describe the following change that caused globalisation: Changes in culture & identity
Globalisation makes it hard for cultures to exist in isolation, due to the spread of the mass media and communications tech. Increasingly we live in a global culture in which Western-owned media companies spread Western culture across the world, while TNCs like Nike sell products around the world, promote similar tastes across the globe.
Also, the movement of tourists, economic migrants, refugees and asylum seekers contributes to globalisation. Trad sources of identity like class are affected by globalisation, as manufacturing jobs have gone abroad, causing the decline of WC communities.
Describe theories of late modernity
they say the changes we are witnessing in society are not the dawn of a postmodern era, but part of modernity itself. They argue that key features of modernity have now become intensified. For example, social change has always been a feature of modernity, but now it has gone into ‘overdrive.’ We are still within modernity, but it is now late modernity.
Describe Gidden’s Reflexivity
He believes we are now in a period of high modernity. One of the main features of modernity is rapid change, often on a global level. In high modern society, tradition no longer guides our behaviour as much, and as a result we become more reflexive: we constantly monitor, reflect on and modify our actions based on information about the possible risks and opportunities they may involve.
As we are always re-evaluating our ideas and theories, nothing is fixed or permanent and everything is up for challenge. He believes we make rational plans to reduce risk we face in society.
Describe Beck’s Risk Society
Like Giddens, he believes reason can be used to create a better world. However, we live in a risk society; which faces new kinds of danger. In the past dangers came from our inability to control nature (e.g. droughts, famines), today we face manufactured risks like global warming and pollution.
Like Giddens, he also argues that late modern society is a period of growing individualisation in which we become more reflexive. We constantly take account of the risks attached to different courses of action open to us- reflexive modernisation.
So being ‘risk conscious’ becomes part of our culture and we seek to avoid or minimise them. E.g, we read of the dangers or benefits of certain foods and change our eating habits accordingly.
Beck is sceptical about scientific progress, but unlike PMs he believes it’s possible to use reason to benefit society: we can use reflexivity to evaluate risks and take action to reduce them e.g. reducing single use plastics.
Give the evaluation of Theories of Late Modernity
The concept of reflexivity suggests we reflect on our actions and are then free to change our lives to reduce any risk to us. However, this isn’t true in some cases. E.g, poor people may be exposed to pollution because of the areas they live in, but they may not be able to afford to move to a cleaner and healthier area.
Some Ms agree that we are in a period of PM but argue that it’s just the most recent stage of capitalism and that tech as such isn’t the cause of global risk, but rather capitalism, which seeks to pursue profit at all costs, even if it involves enviro damage, etc.
Theories of LM do provide a sociological alternative to PM. They show that rational analysis of society remains possible. They recognise that while our knowledge may never be perfect, we can still use it to improve society and reduce the risks we face.
Describe postmodernism
we no longer live in modern society, but PM society. PM is an unstable, fragmented, media-saturated global village, where image and reality are indistinguishable.
In this society, we’re defined by what we consume. PMs believe that modernist theories (e.g. Marxism) no longer apply to society, so a new theory is needed to explain it.
This theory started in the 1970s and argues that we define ourselves by what we consume.
Describe postmodernism in relation to metanarratives and truth
there is no objective way to prove whether a theory is true or false. PMs reject metanarratives (big stories/theories /explanations such as science, religion and sociological theories), claiming that they’re not reality, just someone’s version of reality. This is a relativist argument: that all views are true for those who hold them, and that all accounts of reality are equally valid.
PMs argue that we should celebrate the diversity of views rather than trying to impose one version of the truth on everyone. One of the best ways to describe the PM view of knowledge would be this: ‘The only truth is there are no truths’.
What does Lyotard say in relation to postmodernists
knowledge is just a series of ‘language games’ or ways of seeing the world. He argues this is preferable to modern society, where meta-narratives claimed a monopoly of truth and sometimes tried to impose their views on others (e.g. in the Soviet Union).
Postmodernity allows groups who’d been marginalised by modern society, such as EMs and women to have more of a voice.
Describe identity in relation to post modernism
identity becomes destabilised: rather than having a fixed identity due to class, etc., we’re more able to construct our own identity based on images and lifestyles shown in the media. We can change our identity simply by changing our consumption patterns- picking and mixing cultural goods (music, fashion, etc.) to define ourselves.
Culture and identity are different in postmodern society to modern society, especially due to the role of the media in creating hyper-reality (the inability to distinguish reality from simulation). The media produces an endless stream of images, values and versions of the truth.
As a result, culture becomes fragmented and unstable, so that there is no longer a coherent or fixed set of values shared by everyone in society. This has an impact on areas such as education, where multicultural education is promoted; the family, where people have more choice over relationships and family types; and religion, where there has been a rise in New Age movements linked to the idea of finding out the ‘truth’ yourself.
Additional messages to postmodernism
All these messages undermine faith in meta-narratives. With so many to choose from (science, different religions, etc.) people don’t know which one to choose and believe in. Also, due to the failure of meta-narratives such as Marxism to produce a better society, people lose faith in the possibility of rational progress in society: they don’t think it can be improved.
Political activity to improve the world is impossible and so the central goal of the Enlightenment project (progress through the application of rational knowledge to social problems) is unachievable. We can change our identity by going shopping but we cannot change society
Comparison of modernity to postmodernity: Identity
Modernity: Identities are fixed and shaped by social class, family life, work, gender, ethnicity, etc.
PM: Media and consumption are now the main sources of identity: people ‘pick and mix’ their identities based on what they buy.
Comparison of modernity to postmodernity: Production
M: Industrial technology, mass production of goods, made by manual workers in full-time ‘lifetime’ jobs.
PM: Rapid changes in goods and services, wider consumer choice. Service economy e.g. finance, customer service. ‘Jobs for life’ disappearing: more flexible work, part-time work, job-sharing, etc.
Comparison of modernity to postmodernity: Nation states
M: Nation-states, national economies and national identities are important/powerful.
PM: Nation-states and national identities are displaced/replaced by globalisation e.g. TNCs, the EU, the UN, etc.
Comparison of modernity to postmodernity: Media
M: The mass media reflected reality through TV, newspapers, etc.
PM: The media shapes our sense of reality. We are in hyper-reality, unable to tell fact from fiction e.g. fake news.
Comparison of modernity to postmodernity: Truth
M: Tradition, religion and magic are replaced with rational/scientific ways of seeing and explaining the world: we can use objective knowledge to study and explain the world.
PM: It’s impossible to study the objective truth. People have lost faith in metanarratives, and all forms of knowledge are equally valid e.g. New Age Beliefs are as valid as science. Doubt and uncertainty replace certainty and rational thought.
Comparison of modernity to postmodernity: Metanarratives
M: Sociology can explain society in a scientific way, to understand how it works and what can be done to improve it e.g. positivist theories such as functionalism and Marxism
PM: Modernist theories e.g. functionalism and Marxism are outdated metanarratives which can’t be used to explain postmodern society, which is too different from when these theories developed.
Give the Marxist criticisms of Postmodernism
*Claiming we construct our identities through consumption ignores those who are too poor to buy the goods they want.
*Postmodernism can be criticised logically: it says there are no truths, so surely postmodernism itself isn’t true, just a version of the truth?
Give the criticisms of postmodernists from other theories
the amount of choice PMs claim people have may be limited by other factors e.g. in certain ethnic groups, women are still expected to have traditional gender roles. In terms of religion, in some ethnic groups traditional religion is still very dominant.
