Radical (SumBlog12)

Typically, there have been three defined stages for societies to go through. First, there is pre-modernity. Pre-modernity is an agrarian society, one that is close knit and dependent on one another. Second is modernity, where tasks are specialized. Finally,post-moderninty is a society completely dependent on technology and not on other people. Anthony Giddens was the first sociologist to look at our society and decide we were neither in modernity, or post-modernity, as was the belief at the time. Instead, he made his own category: radical modernity. Giddens studied society and saw characteristics that were symbolic of both modernity and post-modernity. He defined radical modernity as a middle ground between the two. He felt that modern society could not cleanly be placed in either category, so he made his own. Giddens thought that our society today displays both displacement, or isolation, but also people have the ability to form close relationships. Along with that, there is intimacy and closeness, but also impersonality, or distance between people. Some people have expertise in certain skills, but there is re-appropriation, or division of labor, as well. Finally, there is a sense of privatism and individuality. This is balanced by communal engagement. These concepts are the difference between modernity and post-modernity. Giddens saw glimpses of both and categorized it as radical modernity. Since there was no way for Giddens to clearly see society as modern or post-modern, he placed it in the middle. He criticized modernity as too simple and post-modernity as being too far advanced as to where we currently are as a society.

Photo by Elena Markova

This picture by Elena Markova reminded me of the transition between modernity and post-modernity. The connections between people are slipping away and being lost. The hands are neither completely together or completely apart, which is symbolic of our society being neither completely in modernity or post-modernity. It is still in transition, much like the hands in the picture.