The Consequences of Modernity Anthony Giddens

In The Consecuences of Modernity, 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.”

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 eventually 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 of 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 existence than 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 environmental destruction, and the alarming development of military power and weaponry.

The book builds upon the author’s previous 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.

In what follows, I shall develop an institutional analysis of modernity with cultural and epistemological overtones. In so doing, I differ substantially from most current discussions, in which these emphases are reversed.

What is modernity? As a first approximation, let us simply say the following: “modernity” refers to modes of social life or organisation which emerged in Europe from about the seventeenth century onwards and which subsequently became more or less worldwide in their influence. This associates modernity with a time period and with an initial geographical location, but for the moment leaves its major characteristics safely stowed away in a black box.

Today, in the late twentieth century, it is argued by many, we stand at the opening of a new era, to which the social sciences must respond and which is taking us beyond modernity itself. A dazzling variety of terms has been suggested to refer to this transition, a few of which refer positively to the emergence of a new type of social system (such as the “information society” or the “consumer society”), but most of which suggest rather that a preceding state of affairs is drawing to a close (“post-modernity,” “post-modernism,” “post-industrial society,” “post-capitalism,” and so forth).

Some of the debates about these matters concentrate mainly upon institutional transformations, particularly those which propose that we are moving from a system based upon the manufacture of material goods to one concerned more centrally with information. More commonly, however, these controversies are focused largely upon issues of philosophy and epistemology.

This is the characteristic outlook, for example, of the author who has been primarily responsible for popularising the notion of post-modernity, Jean-François Lyotard. As he represents it, post-modernity refers to a shift away from attempts to ground epistemology and from faith in humanly engineered progress.

The condition of post-modernity is distinguished by an evaporating of the “grand narrative” — the overarching “story line” by means of which we are placed in history as beings having a definite past and a predictable future. The post-modern outlook sees a plurality of heterogeneous claims to knowledge, in which science does not have a privileged place.

Anthony Giddens is one of the most influential contemporary sociologists, renowned for his contributions to social theory, the study of modernity, and political sociology. Born in London in 1938, Giddens studied at the University of Hull and the London School of Economics, later earning his doctorate at the University of Cambridge. He went on to have a distinguished academic career, teaching at several leading institutions and serving as Director of the London School of Economics from 1997 to 2003.

Giddens is best known for developing structuration theory, a theoretical framework that seeks to overcome the traditional division between structure and agency by emphasizing their mutual dependence. This approach has had a lasting impact on sociological theory and the social sciences more broadly. His major theoretical works include New Rules of Sociological Method (1976), Central Problems in Social Theory (1979), and The Constitution of Society (1984).

In addition, Giddens has written extensively on modernity, globalization, and risk. Influential books such as The Consequences of Modernity (1990), Modernity and Self-Identity (1991), and The Transformation of Intimacy (1992) analyze the social and cultural dynamics of late modern societies. Beyond academia, Giddens has played a significant role in political debate through his formulation of the “Third Way,” notably expressed in The Third Way: The Renewal of Social Democracy (1998).