“modernity” refers to modes of social life or organisation
which emerged in Europe from about the 17th century
onwards. It is an era distinguished by:
< the pace of change
< the scope of change
< particular institutional forms (e.g. capitalism, nationstate)
1. The dynamism of modernity
What are the characteristics of the modern age that give it its dynamism?
A. The separation of time and space and their recombination in forms which permit the time-spacezoning of social life
B. Disembedding: the lifting out of social relations from local contexts of interaction and their restructuring across indefinite spans of time and space.
< creation of symbolic tokens
< development of expert systems
C. Reflexive
a constant process of reconsidering, re-evaluating, and then re-inserting knowledge into social practices