theory and methods - modernity, postmodernity and late modernity

Question 1

How were products manufactured in modern society?

Answer 1

• industrialisation and the use of technology for the manufacture of standardised goods for a mass market, usually produced by manual workers in full-time life time jobs

Question 2

How are goods made in postmodern society?

Answer 2

• rapid and continuous introduction of new goods with much wider consumer choice
• jobs for life disappear

Question 3

What is the main source of identity in modern society?

Answer 3

• work and social class are the main forms of social division and source of identity

Question 4

What are the main sources of identity in postmodern society?

Answer 4

• media images, consumption and lifestyle become the major sources of identity
• pick ‘n’ mix identities

Question 5

What is culture like in modern society?

Answer 5

• culture reflects the class structure, with clear distinctions between high and low/mass/popular culture

Question 6

What is culture like in postmodern society?

Answer 6

• culture becomes more diverse and fragmented, people pick ‘n’ mix elements from an increasingly diverse global culture

Question 7

What is politics like in modern society?

Answer 7

• politics centre around social class interests, focused on political parties and government

Question 8

What is politics like in postmodern society?

Answer 8

• it becomes more personalised and linked to the diversity of consumer, lifestyle and identity choices

Question 9

What is the importance of nations in modern society?

Answer 9

• nation-states, national economies and national identities predominate

Question 10

What is the importance of nations in postmodern society?

Answer 10

• nation-states and national identities are displaced by globalisation

Question 11

What is the function of the media in modern society?

Answer 11

• mass media is concerned with one-way communication, more or less reflecting a basic social reality

Question 12

What is the function of the media in postmodern society?

Answer 12

• society becomes dominated by global interactive digital media

Question 13

Where does truth come from in modern society?

Answer 13

• rational thought and scientific theories which are seen as superior forms of knowledge

Question 14

Where does truth come from in postmodern society?

Answer 14

• objective truth is undiscoverable
• there is a loss of faith in the certainty of science and rational thought which is replaced by risk, doubt, uncertainty and anxiety

Question 15

What are the key concepts outlined by postmodernists?

Answer 15

• globalisation
• metanarratives
• chaos, uncertainty and the collapse of social structures
• a media-saturated society
• choice, identity and consumption
• pick ‘n’ mix identities

Question 16

What is meant by globalisation?

Answer 16

• national differences are becoming less significant in people’s lives and the world; more interconnected

Question 17

What does Giddens’ argue about globalisation?

Answer 17

• people’s lives are no longer confined to local cultures BUT are influenced by the global framework

Question 18

What is meant by metanarratives?

Answer 18

• society has become so fragmented that all knowledge of any kind is equally valid
• Lyotard = people no longer believe in the ‘myth of truth’

Question 19

What is meant by chaos, uncertainty and the collapse of social structures?

Answer 19

• Bauman = stresses that society is now in such a state of constant change that it is unpredictable, and is marked by chaos and uncertainty - referred to as liquid modernity

Question 20

What is meant by a media-saturated society?

Answer 20

• the mass media is more or less used to relect some basic reality, BUT media images now dominate and distort the way we see the world

Question 21

What is meant by hyperreality?

Answer 21

• a view of the world which is created and defined by the media, with the image of an event appearing more real than the actual event

Question 22

What is meant by choice, identity and consumption?

Answer 22

• individuals are free to pick ‘n’ mix and transform identities and lifestyles chosen from a limitless range of constantly changing consumer goods + leisure activities

Question 23

What are the strengths of postmodernism?

Answer 23

• highlighted some important cultural changes
• emphasises that the construction of identity has become more fluid and complex
• has encouraged sociologists to reflect some contemporary socil changes

Question 24

What is late modernity characterised according to Giddens?

Answer 24

• ## social reflexivity = the knowledge we gain from society can affect the way we act in it

Question 25

What does Beck mean by reflexive modernity?

Answer 25

- people, institutions and governments need to think and reflect more about the risks today - there are high levels of risk that occur rapidly in everyday life