The Consequences of Modernity [Paperback]

Anthony Giddens (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1990

In this major theoretical statement, the author offers a new and provoctive 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.”

We do not as yet, the author argues, live in a post-modern world. The distinctive characteristics of our major social institutions in the closing years of the twentieth century suggest that, rather than entering into a period of post-modernity, we are moving into a period of “high modernity” in which the consequences of modernity are becoming more radicalized and universalized than before. A post-modern social universe may eventualy come into being, but this as yet lies on the other side of the forms of social and cultural organization that currently dominate world history.

In developing a fresh characterization of the nature of modernity, the author concentrates on the themes of security versus danger

and o trust versus risk

. Modernity is a double-edged phenomenon. The development of modern social institutions has created vastly greater opportunities for human beings to enjoy a secure and rewarding existencethan in any type of pre-modern system. But modernity also has a somber side that has become very important in the present century, such as the frequently degrading nature of modern industrial work, the growth of totalitarianism, the threat of environmentsal destruction, and the alrming development of military power and weaponry.

The book builds upon the author’s pevious theoretical writings and will be of great interest to those who have followed his work through the years. However, this book covers issues the author has not previously analyzed and extends the scope of his work into areas of pressing practical concern.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A highly general and speculative analysis of modernity that is challenging and thought-provoking. . . . This is the kind of book that confronts a discipline, in this case sociology, with a number of issues that can provide a formidable agenda for those who pursue them. . . . It is geared to a wide audience that seeks new insights into the questions modernity has generated.”—Choice

“Few contemporary social scientists bring more determination and talent to the daunting task of creating a new tradition than Anthony Giddens. Elements of virtually every classic and contemporary social scientific school and an impressive array of philosophical traditions, each critically assessed and modified, find a home in Giddens’s paradigm. . . . Giddens’s new beginning represents a significant step toward the regeneration of our discipline.”—Contemporary Sociology

“Provides a new and quite engaging perspective on the nature of modernity and its peculiar relationships to traditional social forms. Giddens is outstanding in the way that he is able to absorb the whole tradition of social thought since the time of the classical sociologists and to play various theorists off against one another as a means of defining his own argument. He builds not only upon the whole tradition, but upon his own earlier work.”—Herbert Lindenberger, Stanford University

From the Inside Flap

In this major theoretical statement, the author offers a new and provoctive 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.”
We do not as yet, the author argues, live in a post-modern world. The distinctive characteristics of our major social institutions in the closing years of the twentieth century suggest that, rather than entering into a period of post-modernity, we are moving into a period of “high modernity” in which the consequences of modernity are becoming more radicalized and universalized than before. A post-modern social universe may eventualy come into being, but this as yet lies on the other side of the forms of social and cultural organization that currently dominate world history.
In developing a fresh characterization of the nature of modernity, the author concentrates on the themes of security versus danger

and o trust versus risk

. Modernity is a double-edged phenomenon. The development of modern social institutions has created vastly greater opportunities for human beings to enjoy a secure and rewarding existencethan in any type of pre-modern system. But modernity also has a somber side that has become very important in the present century, such as the frequently degrading nature of modern industrial work, the growth of totalitarianism, the threat of environmentsal destruction, and the alrming development of military power and weaponry.
The book builds upon the author’s pevious theoretical writings and will be of great interest to those who have followed his work through the years. However, this book covers issues the author has not previously analyzed and extends the scope of his work into areas of pressing practical concern.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 188 pages
• Publisher: Stanford University Press (March 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804717621
• ISBN-13: 978-0804717625
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,101,239 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars reflection from the Third World, October 23, 2000

By 

Yenwen Peng (Taiwan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Consequences of Modernity (Paperback)

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)!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good primer, March 12, 2008

By 

Seaboard Lit Prof - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Consequences of Modernity (Paperback)

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hope for grand narratives, July 13, 2010

By 

Brad - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Consequences of Modernity (Paperback)

Ostensively, Giddens offers up Consequences of Modernity as an answer or alternative to Lyotard's version of postmodernism. Thus, even though Giddens only makes direct reference to Lyotard on a few pages, Lyotard's "The Postmodern Condition" is still a prerequisite for reading Gidden's Consequences. In Lyotards postmodern world there are only lesser narratives which cannot be reintegrated. There are no longer any grand narratives to explain life, the universe and everything. The disparate narratives no longer speak the same language; they are no longer part of the same story. The construction and completion of the grand narrative was the mission of Modernity. This was the project that Bacon and the later the Encylopedists believed in. But rifts have formed and there is no longer any unifying theme. The realization of the impossibility of a single unifying grand narrative results in the acceptance of the epistemological fragmentation that is the Postmodern condition.

Giddens disagrees with Lyotard. He considers the contemporary world to be the result of the ongoing unfolding of Modern themes. Instead of pointing to a shift from Modern to Postmodern Giddens points back to the shift from the Traditional to the Modern. The consequences of Modernity are still coming to fruition. We are not entering a new Postmodern Era but rather we are in the process of finally fully leaving behind the Traditional era.

Giddens describes a number of discontinuities between the Traditional and the Modern. There was a shift in our understanding and experience of space and time. In the Modern era time and space became bounded and measured. Space is now meticulously mapped out. Time is now strictly kept track of down to the milisecond. This was not the case in the previous age. Knowledge and value went through a related process of refinement or what Gideens calls "dissembedding". Within the boundaries of their areas of specialization experts map out and perfect their knowledge. Value becomes disembedded with the use of the symbolic tokens that we call money.

In part due to these expert systems and symbolic tokens we see a change from Traditional forms of trust to the Modern forms of trust. In Traditional times trust was more personal and intimate. It was safeguarded by concepts like honor, sin as well as traditional forms of superstition (as opposed to our Modern forms of superstition). In Modern times trust has become abstract and anonymous. We trust now not in people but in abstract systems. We trust that there will be food at the supermarket. We trust that the plane will get us there close to on time. We trust that the house will not fall on us. This trust is based on an interwoven network of experts such as supermarket owners, pilots and architects. We in turn play the some similar impersonal expert role for others as a way of earning money. We trust in the experts because they are being paid. Thus money, as well as a sort of general faith in the overall system of experts is foundational to this Modern form of trust.

These fundamental changes from Tradional to Modern forms are still playing out. We have not yet seen the final consequences of Modernity so we can hardly claim to have reached Postmodernity. Giddens presents us with a paradigm shift that allows us to see Modernity with fresh eyes. It is in effect an attempt to lay the foundations for what Lyotard would call a grand narrative. Giddens to some extent successfully restores our hope in the possibility of a unifying grand narrative but there are places in which the argument begins to dissolve; but then, the same can be said for Lyotard's attempts to convince us to abandon all hope in the possibility of a unifying grand narrative.