Module: Understanding Social Change
Week 9 – Giddens
Giddens is much more complex than the others.
In his own words – globalization
https://tinyurl.com/b2Inmt
He looks to the past and future to understand the social world around us.
Modernity? What does all this mean for Gidden’s notion of society?
What is modernity for Giddens?
The institutions of modernity according to Giddens: capitalism,
industrialisation, surveillance, military power.
Risk and trust
Technical development
Giddens argued that we live in late modernity NOT postmodernity – we have
come to the end of the modern process. We are living in the later version of it.
Giddens states that modernity has become more established and intensified
overtime, referring to modern society and industrial civilisation. He describes
our contemporary experience as one of being in late modernity.
Post feudalism
Modernity still has tradition.
What is the problem with modernity for Giddens?
Loss of control
We need to find out who we are
Dominance of risk. We cannot protect ourselves from risks.
We must trust abstract systems. Some of them are expert systems and
some are symbolic.
Unpredictability in society
Ontological security – we are constantly searching for it. Nothing that you
think is real or true is actually the case. Life is the great unknown and can
never be known. You can never feel secure. You need to accept that it’s
not real; to go with the flow instead. It can only be relevant to that moment
in time.
Deep psychological angst – we don’t know much about anything.
How do we get round this problem of ontological insecurity?
Week 9 – Giddens
Giddens is much more complex than the others.
In his own words – globalization
https://tinyurl.com/b2Inmt
He looks to the past and future to understand the social world around us.
Modernity? What does all this mean for Gidden’s notion of society?
What is modernity for Giddens?
The institutions of modernity according to Giddens: capitalism,
industrialisation, surveillance, military power.
Risk and trust
Technical development
Giddens argued that we live in late modernity NOT postmodernity – we have
come to the end of the modern process. We are living in the later version of it.
Giddens states that modernity has become more established and intensified
overtime, referring to modern society and industrial civilisation. He describes
our contemporary experience as one of being in late modernity.
Post feudalism
Modernity still has tradition.
What is the problem with modernity for Giddens?
Loss of control
We need to find out who we are
Dominance of risk. We cannot protect ourselves from risks.
We must trust abstract systems. Some of them are expert systems and
some are symbolic.
Unpredictability in society
Ontological security – we are constantly searching for it. Nothing that you
think is real or true is actually the case. Life is the great unknown and can
never be known. You can never feel secure. You need to accept that it’s
not real; to go with the flow instead. It can only be relevant to that moment
in time.
Deep psychological angst – we don’t know much about anything.
How do we get round this problem of ontological insecurity?
