The Consequences of Modernity

by Anthony Giddens

Book Overview

In this major theoretical statement, the author offers a new and provocative interpretation of institutional transformations associated with modernity. What is modernity? The author suggests, "As a first approximation, let us simply say the following: 'modernity' refers to modes of social life or organization which emerged in Europe from about the seventeenth century onwards and which subsequently became more or less worldwide in their influence."

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0804718911
• ISBN13: 9780804718912
• Release Date: March 1991
• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Length: 188 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.1" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

A good primer

This is a lucid introduction to some of the key sociological themes of Giddens's theory of modernity. He outlines his case for why the so-called "postmodern" world is really just an intensification of the features of modernity (rather than a distinctive regime that has broken from modernity). But as another reviewer suggested, interest in this debate was already ebbing by 1990, and the more interesting ideas have to do with the way Giddens links modernity and globalization. For Giddens, modernity is less a kind of society or a stage of development than a set of processes that reorder social relations. In one of his oft-quoted formulas, modernity is "a 'lifting out' of social relations from local contexts of interaction and their restructuring across time and space." He offers clear and useful examples that make this abstract description easy to grasp. The book doesn't wade very far into the politically charged debates about modernity--Is modernity just a Western concept that pretends to merely describe what is actually being imposed as an ideological project? Does it make sense to talk about "multiple modernities," alternatives to Western patterns of modernity that can or should develop in different parts of the world? In _Consequences_ Giddens doesn't do more than glance at counter arguments to his own; but he didn't intend to. Serious readers will eventually want to get a bigger picture, but this introduction is a good place to start.

The persuasive micro-foundation of modernity

The persuasive framework to grasp modernityThis is the most popular title among Giddens¡¯s books. There are several reasons for the attractiveness. 1. It was the lecture held in Stanford. So the writing style is easy enough to grip the whole line. It¡¯s hard to say his earlier theoretical books like ¡®Central Problems of Social Theory¡¯, ¡®The Constitution of Society¡¯ are easy to read through, though it¡¯s the nature of theoretical works of sociology, unfortunately.2. Timing: This book was published in 1990 when the chats of postmodernism or postmodernity waned for its unproductivity, while the discussion of globalization was about to wax. Giddens¡¯s countering of postmodernity and theoretical founding of globalization is so persuasive. The framing of modernity in terms of ¡®time-space distanciation which surfaced first in this book, still dominates the talk of globalization.3. He founded the seemingly macro-matter of globalization on the micro-level with the concept of trust. A set of ancillary concepts are accompanied to support this foundation like ontological security, risk, reflexivity, and abstract system. His linking between micro- and macro-level seems so convincing.The overall outline of his framework in this book based on the concept of trust. Trust came from Erickson. So it has the psychological connotation. It¡¯s not hard to capture the gist. But I prefer more friendly version to social sciences. Let¡¯s consider it with the concept of ¡®expectation¡¯. We impose some expectation on every object we encounter; mother, friend, colleague, mug, pen, computer. We expect what my friend would talk or behave before his action or what this mug would like before buying it. What we expect for something is called the expectation. In other word, we assign the identity to those object. Object is everything we can allot name. My self-identity is no exception. Myself is also object which should have some expectation. Everything including myself on the time-space has identity. Trust is the name given to this process. Let¡¯s suppose the nature of time-space changed (time-space distanciation). Then our trust should change accordingly. This is the nub of Giddens¡¯s micro-foundation of modernity in this book.

reflection from the Third World

In dealing the "consequences of modernity" (especially the sombre side, the dangers and risks), I am sure Giddens himself belongs to the "radical engagement" kind he describes. Not only trying to have some impact through his analysis of the situation to date, but practically participate in the "power arena" -as we know he is an important "mastermind" for the British ruling Labor Party. Thus his argument about getting into power to "make thing done" has its trail. And I can't agree more on this standpoint. However, I think he could have paid more attention to the uneven relationship between Western and Non-Western countries within modernity or globalization.Modernity is a western project in terms of the ways of life fostered by the transformative agencies of nation-state and capitalism, according to Giddens. This is "because of the power they(the West) have generated"(p174). On the other hand, modernity is NOT particularly Western from the standpoint of its globalising tendencies because "there are no others"(p175). Hence, it seems clear that the Non-Western world can only "accept" what introduced to them by a "powerful brother". The helplessness is just identical to the situation of lay population facing the expert systems-but only the latter is detailed analyzed in this book.Furthermore, I don't really understand why Giddens makes such an effort to discuss the unique of "trust" in modern era. I mean of course we have to "trust" the abstract systems. But it is the "abstract systems" not "trust" that results our difference from the pre-modern world. A per-modern person had to trust the rules of the society and something he didn't know as well (there were doctors and fortunetellers)!

Consequensence of Modernity

The title itself sounds dangerous, however, the time I read this book makes me aware how far humanities came into destroying the human race. This is the reason why I advocate to all students and reader to fight back against globalization because this is part of what the book it says. The main core of the book or Anthony Giddens thought is that reflexivity of modernity is dangerous. Human are becoming distrusted, playing something that is move by self-centered interest. I know there are consequences of modernity, that is when we abuse our knowledge or intellect, when we are using this modern technology in destruction and in wrong way.