modernity essay introduction

Essay on Modernity

Students are often asked to write an essay on Modernity in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Modernity

Understanding modernity.

Modernity refers to the period that came after the Middle Ages. It’s characterized by a shift from traditional ways to new methods based on science, technology, and reason.

Impact of Modernity

Modernity has brought many changes. People now live in cities, work in industries, and use technology daily. It has improved our lives, but also created new challenges like pollution and inequality.

Modernity and Culture

Modernity has also influenced culture. Traditional arts have evolved, and new forms like cinema and pop music have emerged. Despite this, many societies still preserve their traditional cultures.

Modernity: A Double-Edged Sword

In conclusion, modernity is a double-edged sword. It has brought progress but also problems. It’s our responsibility to use it wisely.

250 Words Essay on Modernity

Modernity, a concept deeply ingrained in our society, refers to a post-medieval historical period marked by the move from feudalism towards capitalism, industrialization, secularization, rationalization, the nation-state and its constituent institutions. It is characterized by the advent of novel ideas, technology, and social structures.

Characteristics of Modernity

Modernity is marked by a profound shift in how societies operate. The rise of individualism, a key characteristic, underscores the importance of personal freedom and self-expression. Concurrently, there’s a decline in traditional societal structures, such as religious and feudal systems, replaced by secular and democratic institutions. This shift is underpinned by rationalization, a process wherein traditional, emotion-based judgments are supplanted by reason and logic.

Implications of Modernity

Modernity has profound implications on the social, political, and economic fabric of society. It has fostered unprecedented social mobility, enabling individuals to transcend their socio-economic boundaries. Politically, it has led to the rise of democratic institutions, empowering citizens with political rights and liberties. Economically, it has spurred industrialization and capitalism, transforming the economic landscape.

Challenges of Modernity

However, modernity is not without its challenges. It often leads to alienation, as individuals grapple with the rapid pace of change and the erosion of traditional societal structures. Moreover, the unfettered pursuit of progress can be detrimental to the environment, as evidenced by the current climate crisis.

In conclusion, modernity, while transformative, is a complex phenomenon. It necessitates a delicate balance between progress and preservation, between individual freedom and societal stability. As we navigate this era of modernity, we must strive to harness its potential while mitigating its challenges.

500 Words Essay on Modernity

Introduction to modernity.

Modernity, as an epoch and concept, is a significant area of study within various academic disciplines. It typically refers to a post-medieval historical period, one marked by the move from feudalism towards capitalism, industrialization, secularization, rationalization, the nation-state and its constituent institutions.

Modernity and its Characteristics

Modernity is often characterized by a distinct shift in the way society is organized and perceived. It is a period of societal evolution marked by an emphasis on individualism, freedom, and change. The rise of democracy, the development of science, the spread of capitalism, and the influence of secular humanism have all been key factors in the formation of the modern world.

The Role of Industrialization and Capitalism

Industrialization and capitalism have played significant roles in shaping modernity. The Industrial Revolution, starting in the late 18th century, led to a shift from agrarian economies to industrial ones. This change brought about significant social, economic, and political changes. Capitalism, as an economic system, has also significantly influenced modernity. It has encouraged competition, innovation, and individual achievement, all of which are hallmarks of the modern era.

Secularization and Rationalization

Secularization, another characteristic of modernity, refers to the declining influence of religion in public life. This process has led to a greater emphasis on rationality and science. Rationalization, a concept developed by Max Weber, refers to the process by which traditional and spontaneous forms of life are replaced by abstract and consciously planned ones. This is evident in the rise of bureaucracy and the rule of law.

Modernity and the Nation-State

The concept of the nation-state is a significant aspect of modernity. The nation-state, an entity characterized by defined territorial borders and sovereign authority, emerged as the primary form of political organization in the modern era. It replaced the feudal system and has become the standard model for political organization around the world.

Despite its many advancements, modernity also presents a number of challenges. The emphasis on rationality and science has often led to a disregard for traditional wisdom and knowledge. The focus on individualism and competition can lead to social isolation and inequality. Additionally, the environmental cost of industrialization is a significant concern.

Conclusion: The Continuing Evolution of Modernity

Modernity is not a static concept, but rather a continually evolving one. It is shaped by the ongoing interplay of historical, social, economic, and political forces. As we move further into the 21st century, the concept of modernity continues to evolve, reflecting the changing realities of our world. Despite its challenges, the modern era has brought profound changes and progress, shaping our understanding of the world and our place within it.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

Essay on Modern Fashion
Essay on Mizoram
Essay on Mirror

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Happy studying!

Article contents

Modernity and modernization.

Robbie Shilliam Robbie Shilliam School of Politics and International Relations, Queen Mary University of London
https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190846626.013.56
Published in print: 01 March 2010
Published online: 30 November 2017

Modernity is defined as a condition of social existence that is significantly different to all past forms of human experience, while modernization refers to the transitional process of moving from “traditional” or “primitive” communities to modern societies. Debates over modernity have been most prominent in the discipline of sociology, created in the nineteenth century specifically to come to terms with “society” as a novel form of human existence. These debates revolved around the constitution of the modern subject: how sociopolitical order is formed in the midst of anomie or alienation of the subject; what form of knowledge production this subject engages in, and what form of knowledge production is appropriate to understand modern subjectivity; and the ethical orientation of the modern subject under conditions where human existence has been rationalized and disenchanted. In its paradoxical search for social content of modern conditions of anomie, alienation, and disenchantment, sociology has relied upon Émile Durkheim, Karl Marx, and Max Weber. Sociological inquiry of modernity and the anthropological/comparative study of modernization have provided two articulations of sociopolitical difference—temporal and geocultural, respectively—that have exerted a strong impact upon approaches to and debates within IR. The attempt to correlate and explain the relationship between temporal and geocultural difference presents a foundational challenge to understandings of the condition of modernity and the processes of modernization.

modernization
sociopolitical order
knowledge production
Émile Durkheim

Introduction

Modernity refers to a condition of social existence that is radically different to all past forms of human experience. Modernization refers to the transitional process of moving from “traditional” or “primitive” communities to modern societies. IR is by and large a derivative discipline when it comes to debates over modernity and modernization. However, these debates have influenced IR in two main ways: firstly, via the exploration of continuity and change in the international system; secondly, and at a more subterranean level, via some of the “great debates” of the discipline and the development of contending theoretical approaches.

Debates over modernity have proceeded most influentially in the discipline of sociology. In fact, the category itself is largely a product of this discipline, and scholars created the discipline in the nineteenth century specifically to come to terms with “society” as a novel form of human existence. These debates have impacted upon IR primarily in the deployment of the contrast between traditional and modern forms of sociopolitical order in order to ascribe and explain the different constitutions of the domestic and international spheres. The sociology of modernity tends to approach different forms of human existence in temporal terms, specifically, the rupture between traditional community and modern society. Indeed, there has often been an implicit assumption in sociological literature that the historical experiences of Western Europe are the defining experiences of the ruptures that created modernity, hence universalizing a particular geocultural experience. Because of this, sociology has usually been reluctant to relate the chronological difference of tradition/modernity to the persistence of synchronous geocultural difference in the modern world order. It is this later form of difference that theories of modernization have directly addressed.

The investigation of modernization as a process has pluralistic intellectual roots: methodologically it utilized a comparative form of analysis in order to illuminate transitional processes between and within Western and non-Western (mainly excolonial) polities in broadly political-economic terms. In fact, the intellectual space available for comparative analysis of different socioeconomically organized polities was provided by social anthropology and its turn to ethnography as a way of exploring the continued existence of “primitive” communities in the modern world. While cognate investigations certainly precede World War II (for example, Veblen 1939 ), it is in the postwar period that modernization theory really developed as a form of comparative analysis that specifically targeted the political transitions of ex-colonial states towards modern societies. While such analyses experienced their heyday during the Cold War, the legacies of modernization theory – both its insights and its oversights – are still felt in both IR and IPE via the attempts to capture the geoculturally pluralistic character of modern world development.

Together, then, the sociological investigation of modernity and the anthropological/comparative study of modernization have provided two articulations of sociopolitical difference, the former temporal, the latter geocultural. These two articulations of difference have impacted significantly upon approaches to and debates within IR; in many ways, the as yet unresolved relationship between temporal and geocultural difference provides one of the deepest challenges to the investigation of the form and content of international relations.

The first part of this essay investigates modernity by reference to historical and contemporary debates within sociology and illuminates, where appropriate, the influence of these debates upon IR. To begin with, the part sketches out the sociological investigation of the modern subject interpolated as an individual inhabiting an impersonalized society. Subsequently, a number of important debates over the constitution of this modern subject are discussed: how sociopolitical order is formed in the midst of anomie or alienation of the subject; what form of knowledge-production this subject partakes of, and what form of knowledge-production is appropriate to understand modern subjectivity; and finally the ethical orientation of the modern subject under conditions where human existence has been rationalized and disenchanted.

The second part of the essay starts by placing the emergence of modernization theory within the intellectual space provided by social anthropology for investigating continued geocultural plurality in an apparently “modern” world. Subsequently, the part documents the rise of modernization theory focusing on the Third World during the Cold War. The grounding in modernization theory of present-day debates in IR over the security/development nexus (especially the notion of “failed states”) is drawn out, as well as the interface between modernization theory and evolving notions of globality. Critiques of modernization theory are then documented, notably the rise of dependency theory and notions of underdevelopment. The second part finishes by drawing attention to current critiques of the way in which social anthropology has inherited the narrative of temporal rupture from sociology, in so doing conflating the traditional and primitive so that the persistence within modernity of supposedly premodern social relations of, for example, race and religion cannot be adequately accounted for.

Sociology and the Modern Subject

Sociological inquiry starts with the assumption that modernity is temporally distinct from tradition (Shils 1961 :1425; Habermas 1987b :8). Although chronological notions of the “modern” existed for centuries before, sociologists have usually placed the beginnings of modernity – and thus their own discipline – within the tumultuous effects of the “dual revolutions” that occurred within Europe at the end of the eighteenth century (Nisbet 1967 ). In fine, the rupture thesis of modernity states that the (French) democratic and (British) industrial revolutions radically undermined preexisting localized communities and their traditions by profaning sacred values and dismantling associated sociopolitical hierarchies.

The new science of sociology was charged with investigating the theoretical, practical, and ethical challenges deriving from the interpolation – through the abovementioned revolutions – of the “individual” as the subject of an impersonalized organizational form of human coexistence, “society” (Elias 1978 :34–7). Standing on the modern side of the chasm, sociologists have claimed that the condition of human being must be thought through without the comforting sureties of timeless tradition and spiritual faith. Rather than considered as part of an enchanted objective whole, the individual must be examined by prizing open its interior life. Subsequently, the development of the modern subject must be investigated in terms of an open-ended, constantly shifting process rather than embedded within an eschatological narrative; and meaning – if there is to be found any meaning – must be understood as immanent in this new human existence rather than transcendental (Lash and Friedman 1992 ).

With this in mind it is interesting to note that, similarly the sociology problematique, the core problematique of IR theory has always been the paradoxical search for order under conditions of anarchy. However, for this task, sociology has not relied upon a Realist canon of classical political thinkers, but upon Émile Durkheim, Karl Marx, and Max Weber.

Order, Anomie, and Alienation

For Durkheim, traditional societies exhibited a mechanical form of solidarity because the individual was bound to the “collective conscience” directly instead of through a series of mediating institutional nodes. With no room to become authors of their own agency, individuals were effectively inorganic matter, hence Durkheim’s mechanical metaphor (Durkheim 1964 :130). Alternatively, industrialization prompted the specialization of tasks that, with a more complex division of labor, resulted in institutional differentiation (pp. 354–61). As the totalizing moral code of tradition was replaced with an instrumental approach to social interaction based on institutionalized specialization, individuals came to understand their social existence in terms of anomie (Durkheim 1964 :128, 361; 1970 :382) Durkheim claimed that the new form of solidarity, unlike the mechanical type of traditional communities, gained its strength by encouraging the development of individual personality, a requirement of the complex division of labor. Because both the parts and the whole were “living,” modern society exhibited an “organic” form of solidarity (Durkheim 1964 :124, 131).

Durkheim’s claim regarding the radically different constitution of sociopolitical order in modernity has been mobilized in IR as a way of mapping out the divided terrain of politics so that the “international” is effectively rendered as a premodern space in opposition to the modern space to be found within the state. In the pivotal chapter 6 of his hagiographic neorealist script, Theory of International Politics , Kenneth Waltz ( 1979 ) argues for the different structural qualities of domestic and international politics by referring to Durkheim’s distinction between mechanical and organic solidarity (see for example Waltz 1979 :115). Waltz claims that the international realm is characterized by the mechanical form of solidarity. Populated by an array of non-differentiated functionally like units, the international realm lacks a complex division of labor and can therefore only be composed of relations of thin interdependence, because the functional likeness of parts leads to systemic competition: anarchy is the condition of anomic relations between parts. Alternatively, the domestic realm for Waltz is characterized by an organic form of solidarity wherein a functional differentiation of units allows the parts to be bound together in a socially thick integrative hierarchy. But Waltz radically misinterprets Durkheim’s schema by reversing the social integrity of the two forms of social solidarity. That is to say, contra Waltz, that the more anomie among parts, the thicker their social integration (see Barkdull 1995 ). By Durkheim’s sociological reading, “anarchy” is at least as socially constituted as “hierarchy,” which puts into question Waltz’s seminal division of the substance of domestic and international politics.

Marx marked capitalist modernity in distinction to precapitalist modes of production, wherein the division of labor was organized through the direct access of the producer to communally regulated land and wherein exploitation – the appropriation of surplus product – proceeded through localized hierarchical relations of personal dependency between lord and serf (Marx 1973 :156–66). “Primitive accumulation” was the term Marx gave to the violent and conflict-ridden historical process of privatizing property and, via the “enclosure” of the commons, divorcing the producer from direct access to the means of production (Marx 1990 :873–940). In the capitalist mode of production, Marx argued, land and labor became commodities, “things” disembodied from personal and communal attachments. Concomitantly, exploitation proceeded through non-hierarchical relations between impersonalized individuals exchanging commodities, especially labor, via wage contracts (see, for example, p. 179). The capitalist mode of production required a differentiation of spheres to be upheld by the state apparatus (see Wood 1981 ): between the public sphere of civil society, which allowed for exchange amongst equal individuals as political subjects, and the private sphere of the economy, which allowed for exploitation of contracted workers as their labor power was alienated (Marx and Engels 1973 :70) by the owners of the means of production for the accumulation of capital (Marx 1990 :270–306). In this respect, the pursuit and amassing of social power in the form of capital accumulation proceeded in the “economic” rather than the “political” realm.

Marx’s thesis on capitalist modernity has been influential to IR in providing both structuralist and agential explanations of the making of the modern world order. Robert Cox ( 1987 ) has written an influential argument on this movement using a neo-Gramscian framework to delineate the structural interlocking of political, economic, and ideological aspects of power that made up the capitalist hegemony of the twentieth century Pax Americana (see also Rupert 1995 ). Justin Rosenberg ( 1994 ) has used a classical Marxian standpoint to construct a structural explanation of anarchy which competes with that provided by Waltz. Rosenberg argues that the apparent anarchy of geopolitics – a horizontalized space of like units pursuing their self-interest – is an effect of the global social structure of capitalist modernity, a structure that depends upon the differentiation of economic (the world market) and political (interstate relations) spheres. For Rosenberg, anarchy is not a presocial condition, but the geopolitical condition of possibility for the global instantiation of capitalist social relations and the accumulation of social power on a world scale in the form of capital. Alternatively, agential explanations of the global rise of capitalist modernity are most evident in the Historical Materialist critique of the neo-Liberal policy of the last 25 years as the instrument through which the capitalist class of advanced economies have mounted a new wave of “enclosures” (Midnight Notes Collective 1990 ). In IR/IPE this interpretation of the socially transformative content of capitalist globalization has been pursued most forcefully by a broad range of neo-Gramscians (for example, Gill 1995 ; van der Pijl 1998 ).

Weber developed a sociology of religion in order to understand why and how modern forms of social action and political rule took on the content of “instrumental rationality.” The Protestant calling, for Weber, was historically peculiar among spiritual maxims in that it did not encourage an indulgence in the pleasures of the earthly world, nor did it approve fleeing from the world, but rather demanded an ascetic of methodological labor within the world (on this narrative see Weber 1963 :216–21; 1982b ; 2001 ). However, the pursuit of methodological labor led to a “disenchantment” of the world that the subject inhabited. Ultimately, the Protestant ethic produced a self-conscious privileging of predictability and calculability as the means of social interaction over the value-laden ends that such conduct was mobilized towards. Crucially for Weber, this “instrumental rationality” that became the preeminent form of modern social interaction was also distinguishable from other types of political authority, namely charismatic and traditional, by the way that it allowed for a domination of technical means over moral ends. Thus, for Weber, modern political authority was unique in that the form of social solidarity it regulated was a disenchanted one devoid of moral ends, and the epitomic organizational structure of instrumental-rational political authority was the modern bureaucracy. The bureaucratic accumulation of information on society was a legitimate exercise of authority not by dint of its direct moral ends but because it provided for calculable, predictable, and deliberate means of social planning (see Weber 1978a :66–8, 215–26; 1978b :958–75).

Although profoundly influential in organization theory and sociology, Weber’s main impact upon IR has been in historical-sociological accounts of the development of the modern state that do not, by and large, pay attention to the importance that his sociology of religion holds for making sense of his typologies of modern political authority (but see, suggestively, Hurd 2004 ). Nevertheless, Weber’s articulation of the instrumental-rational form of modern political authority has been used in IR to problematize the neo-Realist and neo-Liberal institutionalist debate regarding the standing and power of international organizations. Specifically, scholars have used Weber to inject the dimension of legitimate rule into the debate: international organizations can be said to hold a relative autonomy from the states that constructed them due to their particular modern purpose of accumulating and disseminating knowledge of the international realm and their claim to legitimacy justified by the instrumental-rational pursuit of this purpose (for example Finnemore 1996 ; Barnett and Finnemore 1999 ; and in general see Ruggie 1998 ).

In fine, all three figures – Durkheim, Marx, and Weber – have been used in sociology to uncover the paradoxically social content of modern conditions of anomie, alienation, and disenchantment, and these uses have been influential on debates in IR over the peculiar substance of the international sphere of relations.

There has, however, developed a sustained and foundational critique of the gender-blind character of the classical sociological approach to modernity (for example, Pateman 1988 ; Murgatroyd 1989 ). Absent from these inquiries is a sustained examination of the affective and personalized social relations of the family, and, what is more, an inquiry into the hierarchies of power that construct these relations through the institution of patriarchy. A number of feminist scholars have argued that modern society structurally requires the reproduction of segregated spheres: the public (including both the political realm of civil society and the economic realm of wage contracts) and the personal (especially the family). The latter sphere cannot, then, be understood as a premodern relic; and, because of the substance of its social relations, neither can it be analyzed as simply one more institution within a generic functionally differentiated division of labor. This critique then begs some questions: (1) how rupturing of traditional communities were the revolutions that produced modernity? and (2) how might a focus on the co-constitutive relationship between, for example, anomie and affection, patriarchy and capitalism, or emotive authority and that based, on instrumental rationality affect understanding of the condition of modernity? Various feminist works in IR have addressed these questions (for example, Elshtain 1987 ; Enloe 1990 ).

Knowledge Production and the Modern Subject

The epistemological concern for Verstehen , that is, an interpretive understanding of the first-person perspective, was a mid to late nineteenth-century critical response by German intellectuals to the popularity of natural-scientific explanations of the social world that, by positing universally applicable cause–effect models, seemed to rob social explanation of any need to engage with the particular subject. For example, Neo-Kantians of the Heidelberg school took to heart Kant’s claim that abstract universal reason could never be substantively manifest within a pluralistic and imperfect political world, but went further than Kant by claiming that no system of meaning could hold universal validity. Neo-Kantian epistemology allowed scholars such as Georg Simmel (for example 1980 ) and Weber (for example 1975 ) to investigate a plurality of culturally specific systems of meanings and values .

Out of these concerns, Karl Mannheim ( 1936 ) created a new academic subfield in the interwar period called the “sociology of knowledge.” For Mannheim, any attempt to inject understanding ( Verstehen ) into social policy would have to recognize that meaningful worldviews were culturally differentiated amongst groups so that morality in the social realm would always be radically relative and could not claim universal anchorage (Mannheim 1936 :17–21, 32) In fact, Mannheim proved influential in what has come to be known, retrospectively, as the “first great debate” in IR. In large part, E.H. Carr translated Mannheim’s thesis into the famous Realism/Idealism conundrum in his Twenty Years’ Crisis (Jones 1998 ): Realism’s purpose for Carr was to uncover the idealism of liberal thought in its positing of a universal morality; yet Realism itself required some idealism – some principled engagement with meaning – because without this, Realism could not inject any direction into political affairs (Carr 2001 ). If Carr and his retroactively identified Realist ilk are said to have won the debate, then, in this respect, it was decidedly not objectivism that triumphed over idealism (contra Mearsheimer 2005 ).

Another, related, intellectual current was the rise of a new hermeneutics with scholars, most famously Wilhelm Dilthey ( 1996 ), seeking to understand (rather than explain) the inner experience of the individual by reference to his or her particular external historical-social milieu. In the USA, George Herbert Mead utilized Dilthey’s hermeneutics in part to construct a social psychology of “object relativism.” For Mead ( 2002 ), the inner meanings held by the individual subject became object when his or her gestures invoked the same responses in other individuals as they had in the subject. Through this aspect of language, subjective meanings became socially constructed as objects. Indeed, the legacy of the Verstehen approach is perhaps strongest in the rise of “social constructivism” as a contender approach to both neo-Realism and neo-Liberal Institutionalism. The intellectual sociological sources of IR constructivism are many and disparate, and have by no means been understood as complementary in their originating academic spheres. But for the purposes of explicating the influence of the sociological debates over Verstehen , the discussion will focus upon Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann’s Social Construction of Reality ( 1966 ), a text that has proved influential for much constructivist theory in IR.

Berger and Luckmann accepted Marx’s claim that what is specific to humanity is the social and historical organization of its relationship with nature (p. 51). And they took from Mannheim the point that meaning is not a question only for philosophers but is constitutive of the everyday social life of the subject (p. 9). They expanded this position by drawing upon the symbolic-interactionist school of sociology, heavily influenced by Mead’s object-relativism, in order to claim that through language, subjective meanings become constructed as social objects. With all this, Berger and Luckmann proposed a dialectical approach to hermeneutics: subjects apprehend the objectified social reality but in turn are involved in an ongoing production of this reality so that the social construction of reality is effectively institutionalized through social roles organized by reference to symbolic universes (pp. 66, 73–4, 103). Berger and Luckmann noted that in traditional societies, there was little room for uninstitutionalized actions within a totalizing symbolic universe; but they argued, in a Durkheimian manner, that with the differentiation of institutional tasks associated with modern society the symbolic universe splits into many particular sub-universes. This, they claimed, makes the process of the integration of subjects into a social whole driven not by functional requisites but primarily by the need for legitimation . In fact, legitimation becomes the prime mode of politically ordering societies due to the constantly transformative hermeneutics that are required for modern subjects to take on meaningful roles in a complex division of labor. Thus modern society was qualitatively more amenable to constant changes within its symbolic universe (pp. 79–86, 199).

It is precisely these specific qualities of modern rule that Nicolas Onuf uses in the book that introduced constructivism to IR ( 1989 ) in order to critique the “premodern” focus of Realists on the coercive play of self-interests in world politics rather than on the social construction of meaning. Similarly, although there are other intellectual sources of Alexander Wendt ’s constructivism (for example, Anthony Giddens ’s structuration theory and Roy Bhaskar ’s Critical Realism), Wendt himself ( 1995 :76) seems to suggest the greater importance of Berger and Luckmann for constructivism. Invoking the above dialectic of hermeneutics, Wendt argues ( 1992 :397) that collective meanings constitute structures that organize actions; and actors acquire identities – “relatively stable, role-specific understandings and expectations about self” – through these collective meanings. With this interpretive approach, Wendt critiques the neo-Realist understanding of anarchy as a purely objective structural feature of international relations and posits, instead, the socially constructed nature of anarchy between (anthropomorphized) states. As such, even if anarchy has become an objectified social meaning within world affairs it cannot be said to be objectively timeless.

In all these ways, then, the “third debate” in IR has relied heavily upon existing sociological investigations into the unique character of modern subjectivity and the forms of knowledge that derive from, and are adequate to represent, this character. And this influence is most clearly exampled in the development of Constructivism, the most popular recent challenge to neo-Realism and neo-Liberal Institutionalism.

Rationality and Freedom

Enlightenment thought posited that human beings could be freed from tradition and blind faith by the use of reason so as to reorder their relationship to nature and other humans according to rational principles (Kant 1991 ). In short, control over – and improvement of – the social and natural worlds, spurred on by the amassing of scientific knowledge, were considered to be the causes of progressive freedom. However, this optimistic viewpoint was, and has always been, countered by a more pessimistic assessment that the very means for promoting the ends of freedom – knowledge and control – might, instead, end up producing a modern form of unfreedom (Mills 1959 ). The claim that the promise of Enlightenment turned into the reality of modernity seemed to be empirically confirmed by two world wars, Nazism, Stalinism, and the increasing autonomy of economic activities and industrial advance from public oversight (see especially Marcuse 1964 ; Bauman 1989 ; Horkheimer and Adorno 1997 ).

While Marx ( 1990 :272–3) alluded to the substantive (if not formal) conditions of unfreedom that capitalist modernity placed upon the working class, Friedrich Nietzsche directly explored the socio-psychological dimension of this unfreedom. For Nietzsche ascetic ideals, especially those that seek to regulate action through positing a metaphysical god or transcendent truth, were life-denying in that they rendered the meaning of existence secure and circumscribed; and ascetic ideals found their nadir in the Enlightenment creation of a disenchanted scientific outlook. While Nietzsche argued that the “death of god” should be seen as an opportunity to radically affirm social existence in its contingent and fluid characteristics, i.e. to call the value of truth into question, instead, he observed, the ascetic aspect of modern life produced a self-forgetfulness in the subject by interpolating him or her as an impersonal element in mechanical activity that would be valued for its absolute regularity (see especially Nietzsche 2003 :97–8).

Nietzsche ( 1997 ) contrasted the possibility immanent in modern subjects of becoming “over-men” who celebrated the open-ended possibilities of living after truth with the tendency for modern subjects to become “last men” – stagnant, herd-like, and contented with a mechanical life. Philosophy failed the “over-man”; instead, the positing of truth as unity had to be understood as a will to power – the will of a particular perspective to dominant others. Accepting this then made the embrace of ontological pluralism an ethical imperative once God was found to be dead ( 1967 : bk. 2:III, bk. 3:III). Taking Nietzsche’s critique of truth and power to heart, Weber believed that in a “polytheistic” world, social science could and should help to answer why the ethical ends of human action had become a problem for modern subjects to believe in (1982a:143). Echoing Nietzsche, Weber argued that the promise of modern freedom lay, paradoxically, in the space opened up by disenchantment and the “death of God” for the cultivation of an awareness of the ethical and practical limits of one’s own subject position. This would help to stem the colonization of social action and interaction by a purely means-oriented instrumental rationality (Weber 1982a ).

Nietzsche and Weber have been mobilized in IR to fundamentally challenge the neo-Realist assumption that undistorted knowledge of political action must exclude ethical concerns over those actions (Walker 1993 ; Barkawi 1998 ). Instead, scholars have argued that rationality needs to be seen as a value-system peculiar to modernity rather than a transcendental entry-point to “truth.” In fact, such critiques have been used to retrieve Hans Morgenthau ’s Nietzschean and Weberian influence and to reinterpret the “godfather” of Realism as not a proto-positivist but ethically anti- positivist (Pichler 1998 ; Peterson 1999 ; Bain 2000 ; Williams 2005 ). Both of these lines of attack on neo-Realism have cleared the way for the current development of a non/anti-positivist realist position on the ethical character of formulating prudential foreign policies for a polytheistic world (Lebow 2003 ; Williams 2005 ; Molloy 2006 ).

Also gathering pace in the 1980s was an attempt by cultural and political theorists to recover a dialectical approach that presented modernity as constituted by tendencies towards both creation and destruction of freedom (for example, Berman 1983 ). Subsequently, buoyed by the new possibilities emerging from the end of the Cold War, many scholars began to likewise reinterpret the historical roots and legacies of modernity. Stephen Toulmin ( 1990 ) claimed that modern thought had skipped over the skeptical and critical attitude of sixteenth century humanism and instead had selectively appropriated the seventeenth century pursuit of mathematical and logical rigor. In a seminal address to the International Studies Association, Hayward Alker ( 1992 ) used this focus on humanism to reclaim an ethical orientation for IR theory in the new world order.

The debate still unfolds regarding the extent to which an ethical promise of freedom can be understood to be immanent in – or transformative of – the modern subject, and it has defined much of the terrain of “post-positivist” debate within IR (Hoffman 1987 ; George and Campbell 1990 ; Devetak 1995 ). But perhaps the most consistent and dominant voice in this debate has been that of Jürgen Habermas. Habermas accepts the Weberian narrative of disenchantment leading to an increased dominance of means-oriented instrumental rationality in the governing of modern society so that reason loses its emancipatory content by robbing the modern subject of an ends-orientation to the social world. In fine, politics becomes the management of technological progress (Habermas 1970 ). However, Habermas argues that the Weberian narrative should not be understood as the telos of modernity; rather, it is possible to retrieve an ends-oriented rationality within modern society.

To this effect, Habermas ( 1971 ) divides up knowledge-constitutive interests – that is to say, the means by which subjects organize social life – into three cognitive areas: technical interests that inform work life; practical interests that inform social life in terms of inter-subjectivity and norm-based communications; and emancipatory interests that inform notions of freedom from existing social constraints including distorted communication between subjects (Habermas 1983 : pt. III). For Habermas, the problem arises when means-oriented rationality expands out of the technical realm to “colonize” the practical realm of intersubjectivity and communicative action wherein consensus amongst individuals is arrived at intersubjectively through free and equal dialogue of truth claims and the judgment of existing norms (Habermas 1987a :196). Thus Habermas describes the dialectic of modernity in terms of the dual and frictional development of the instrumental rationality of the social “system” and the communicative rationality of the “life-world” (Habermas 1987 ). The moral imperative of political thought and action is to recover and promote the latter (Habermas 1987 ; 1997 ).

Habermas’s thesis on communicative action has occupied a central position in IR’s “third debate,” especially in the critique of positivist epistemology and its evacuation of ethical considerations from the study of foreign policy (for an overview see Diez and Steans 2005 ). The most sustained engagement with Habermas in IR probably comes from Andrew Linklater , who has increasingly argued that a thin moral universalism is transforming the nature of the international sphere, and that this transformation is driven by the spread of dialogic reasoning via the universalization of the modern subject across polities (Linklater 1992 ; 1998 ; 2005 ). Habermas himself has now contributed directly to the debate on the possibilities of “global citizenship” with a set of discussions on the development of the European Union. Habermas notes that the EU experiment proceeds through the frictional development of two forms of integration – functional (instrumental-rational) associated with the advance of capitalism, and social (communicative-rational) associated heretofore with the rise of the welfare state but now holding the possibility of developing a post-national constellation; and one that holds a cosmopolitan promise of cultivating a consensual and inclusive foreign policy at stark odds to the self-interested and violent nature of recent US adventures (Habermas 2001 ; 2006 ).

There are a number of problems, however, with the universal assumptions that underwrite such cosmopolitan positions, problems, moreover, that example the longstanding parochialism that has accompanied sociologies and social and political theories of modernity. First, Habermas, like many of the “modernist” theorists, renders the dialectic of freedom in purely masculine terms as the struggle over/for rationality in the public realm, yet pays little attention to how this dialectic might play out in the feminized personal realm, for example over libidinal desire (Felski 1995 ; Hutchings 2005 ). This makes it difficult to explore the complexities of women’s experiences of social change, as if the personal realm of social existence is immune from the dialectics of modernity. In fact, one might even say that it is in this realm that the struggle for freedom foundationally lies: the revolutionary ruptures responsible for the modern condition, while perhaps creating new opportunities for freedom for (some) men, created new unfreedoms for women by driving them into social roles associated with the nuclear family unit (see Kelly 1984 ).

Second, and to presage the core issues that accompany theories and narratives of modernization, despite a focus on dialogic politics Habermas shares with many normative political theorists within and outside of IR a peculiar insular geocultural outlook on modernity. For example, Habermas reads the European project of cosmopolitanism as a contestation with its own production of nationalism and barbaric fascism, but does not directly invoke the colonial dimension of European history. In effect, Habermas posits the dynamic of the dialectic of modernity firmly within European history. This sharp temporal and geocultural circumscribing of the formation and condition of the modern subject is by no means a constraint unique to Habermas. Indeed, the temporal openness that many sociologists as well as social and political theorists have ascribed to modern society has always run into tension with the selfsame sociologists’ circumscription of its geocultural origins within (Western) Europe. This has been both a theoretical and practical challenge to understanding modernity in global terms, and it is a challenge that lies at the heart of modernization theory.

Modernization

Anthropology and the primitive.

There has long been an implicit division of intellectual labor between sociology and anthropology such that the former has studied the individual in modern society, while the latter has studied the primitive in his or her community. However, even the classic sociologists – for example, Durkheim – developed their inquiry of modern social being by direct comparative reference to the non-European “primitive” milieu as much as by reference to the European traditional milieu (for example, Durkheim 1964 :58–9; see also Durkheim’s nephew and student, Mauss 1979 ). With the development of its ethnographic method in the interwar years (Malinowski 1922 ) English social anthropology opened up the primitive to detailed first-hand observation through the claim that primitive community could be scientifically assessed as a Durkheimian social system composed of roles and types (see especially Radcliffe-Brown 1948 :229–34). And with this advance, understanding of the primitive condition shifted from mythic-historical to contemporaneous-sociological, and on this basis the comparative analysis of qualitatively different political institutions could proceed both within primitive societies and between primitive and modern societies. Indeed, Meyer Fortes and Edward Evans-Pritchard ( 1940 ), although anthropologists, were amongst the first scholars to produce what would be recognized nowadays as a text on “comparative politics.”

Of special importance in this volume for IR was the difference that Fortes and Evans-Pritchard encountered within the African primitive world between centralized political authorities that displayed administrative machinery and judicial institutions and decentralized sociopolitical networks that displayed no sharp divisions of rank, status, or wealth and, crucially, seemed to lack government. The challenge presented by this latter type was to explain “what, in the absence of explicit forms of government, could be held to constitute the political structure of a people” (Fortes and Evans-Pritchard 1940 :23). Roger Masters ( 1964 ) used these musings to explain the thin sociality of the international sphere in terms of a primitive form of governance in the absence of government. Hedley Bull ( 1995 :57–62) later used Masters’s musings to, in part, inspire his influential “English School” concept of the “anarchical society.” Alternatively, Aaron Sampson ( 2002 ) has argued that the reason why Waltz could paradoxically produce a Durkheimian structural-functional theory of an anarchic state system owes much to his readings of the English school of social anthropology: Waltz’s anarchy was, in short, conceived as a “tropical anarchy.”

Thus the primitive community has been as influential a contrast to modern society as the traditional community in the attempt to describe and explain the difference between the international and domestic spheres. But what is just as important to note is that while sociology approached difference in primarily temporal terms – i.e. the rupture between the traditional and the modern – Social Anthropology sought to address difference in geocultural terms – i.e. the synchronic comparison of primitive communities and modern societies.

Explorations of Modernization

The persistence of the “primitive” in the modern world took on a geopolitically charged dimension with the emergence of the Cold War. The containment of the Communist threat required American political scientists to consider the trajectories of colonies once they had became independent (see for example Pauker 1959 ). The stakes were high: would the modernization of ex-colonial societies be so disorderly as to lead them towards the Communist orbit, or could there be an orderly management of the rupturing of old forms of social solidarity such that modernization would lead them into the American orbit? Primarily, the different geocultural bases upon which modernization in the Third World proceeded were investigated via the comparative method of political science, an approach that, as already indicated, drew significantly upon the preceding and cognate work of social anthropology (for example, Almond 1960 :3–4). Modernization theorists held to the historical narrative that posited and expected a uniformity in development patterns (manifest primarily in the rationalization of bureaucratic structures of fledgling independent states) as well as in the expansion and thickening of social relations through a complex division of labor (for example, Deutsch 1961 ). But what modernization theorists were much less sanguine about was the uniformity of trajectories towards modernity.

Of special concern, in this respect, was the fact that Third World elites inherited a state that, due to colonialism, had developed no institutions that could provide the seedbed for the modern form of political legitimacy. The attempt to retain order and stability in the midst of modernization could therefore result just as easily in authoritarian, rather than democratic, rule (see Almond 1960 , and especially Pye 1966 ). In search of a solution, Gabriel Almond and Sydney Verba looked towards England’s own transition period in the seventeenth century to recover the mix of rationalism and traditionalism that produced a “civic culture” within which both old elites could retain their legitimacy at the same time as allowing newly enfranchised members of the political community to join (Almond and Verba 1963 ). A militaristic path was posited by others (Pye 1962 ; Janowitz 1964 ), and most notably by Samuel Huntington ( 1968 ).

Political scientists were mistaken, Huntington claimed ( 1968 :5–8), if they believed that modernization in the Third World entailed the gradual diminution of government and coercion in civil affairs. In fact the opposite was the case, because the military was the one political institution that had been modernized during colonialism. Moreover, its institutional functionality was not exhausted by the exercise of violence but extended to technological advancement and industrial production as well as exhibiting a Weberian ideal-typical rationalized administration that recruited from the new middle class and not from traditional sources of authority (Huntington 1968 :201). Recruits could be acculturated into the army, trained in the ways of citizenship, and taught how to identify with a larger political self. In short, modernization through militarization would lead to a “responsible nationalism” (Pye 1962 :82) instead of a disorderly populism that might create a gravitational pull towards the communist orbit.

Indeed, the militarization of Third World development also became an issue for IR scholars who imported the notion of weak and strong states from modernization literature. Against the Realist assumption that the international system was populated by functionally like units, these scholars used the notion of weak/strong states to bring attention to the fact that not all governments enjoyed sovereign command over the internal regulation of social life, or the rational mobilization of domestic resources to pursue the national interest. Indeed, the putatively sovereign status of many Third World states depended effectively upon the guarantees of international law and material aid from First and Second World “strong” states (Buzan 1988 ; Migdal 1988 ; Jackson 1990 ). Cognate to the concerns of modernization theory, the heterogeneity between First World and Third World states was considered to be a legacy of colonial rule and the result of late entry into an already formed society of states (Ayoob 1995 ).

In the early 1990s, however, investigations of the “weak” state started to be replaced by a concern for the phenomenon of “failed” states (see for example Holsti 1995 ). But in contrast to the concern for path dependency in modernization theory this shift has reintroduced a universally applicable typology of political authority wherein failure is judged according to an ideal-typical Weberian form of modern rational authority (see for example King and Zeng 2001 ). Concomitantly, the investigation of the threat that Third World instability poses to the security of the West has now become firmly grounded in the idea that the “failed state” is a breeding ground for general social ills such as disease, crime, migrants, and most recently terrorists (Kaplan 2001 ; Rotberg 2002 ; Krasner and Pascual 2005 ). Modernization theory has effectively transmuted into the “securitization of development” discourse (see Duffield 2001 ). Indeed, back in the late 1960s Robert McNamara , reflecting upon his stint as the US Secretary of Defense and thinking forward to his “fight on poverty” as President of the World Bank, astutely noted that “in a modernizing society security means development” ( 1968 :149).

Alternatively, many scholars by the late 1980s were noting that the shift from a Fordist mode of production to flexible accumulation, the globalization of the production process it entailed, and the new international division of labor it had constructed, was giving rise to a new intensification of “time-space distantiation” (Giddens 1990 ; Jameson 1991 ). In IR, aside from the rise of globalization theories and risk analyses, treated elsewhere in this Compendium, in part this debate influenced John Ruggie ’s seminal discussion ( 1993 :144–8) on the relationship between territoriality and modernity. Out of these musings has also arisen the idea of “reflexive modernization,” which posits that agents in the original age of modernity – the industrial age – understood their task to be the dissolution of the existing stable traditional order and the reconstruction of a maximal state of human existence; however, once tradition faded into historical memory modern subjects have increasingly come to face the consequences of modernization itself. In this respect, contemporary subjects who now live in a global age might experience cognitive dissonance with the identifying categories of society and the nation-state (Featherstone et al. 1995 ; Albrow 1997 ; and in IR see Shaw 2000 ; Palan and Cameron 2003 ).

Political Economy Critiques of “Modernization”

The most concentrated and influential critique of modernization theory emerged out of the Latin American experience after World War II, wherein population growth had exceeded economic growth, raising the specter of social disorder amongst the masses. The critique finds its immediate origins in the UN-sponsored Economic Commission for Latin America, wherein economists such as Raúl Prebisch ( 1963 ) claimed that modernization was not a spontaneous but rather a politically induced process. Moreover, political intervention and regulation had to tackle the disequilibrium caused by an international division of labor that placed manufacturing in the First World and primary commodity production in the Third. Some scholars versed in Marxist-Leninist theories of imperialism argued that in the peripheral economies, unlike the core economies, capitalism had to be understood as effecting the “development of underdevelopment” (Frank 1971 ; Amin 1976 ). In other words, the condition of possibility for capitalist accumulation in the center (ex-colonial) societies was the denial of an endogenously based growth process in the periphery. Other scholars argued that this condition of dependency had, itself, a semi-autonomous developmental logic to it because much depended upon how external economic forces were mediated by the politically powerful national bourgeoisie of particular peripheral states (Dos Santos 1970 ; Cardoso and Faletto 1979 ).

For the purposes of this essay, there are two important challenges that arise from the underdevelopment and dependency critiques. First, they presented a challenge to the accepted chronology that placed Latin American societies since 1492 in the “premodern” period and that were only now, belatedly, modernizing. Secondly, dependency and underdevelopment theorists were adamant that political-economic structure could not be adequately examined only by reference to national units; instead, there was a global structure of uneven development that governed at the same time the interaction between national units and the political-economic dynamics internal to each unit. These critiques of modernization theory have been most widely disseminated throughout the social sciences by Immanuel Wallerstein ’s “world systems theory” ( 1974 ). And although they do not figure in Yoseph Lapid’s ( 1989 ) influential assessment of the “third debate,” it is interesting to remember that Wendt’s seminal contribution to the agent–structure debate in IR structure/agency debate (Wendt 1987 :335–6) began by contrasting and critiquing both Waltz’s structural realism and Wallerstein’s world systems theory.

Political-economy critiques of the unilinear modernization narrative have persisted beyond the 1980s. There has been a resurgence in interest over the theoretical challenge that the condition of structural unevenness presents to understanding the development of capitalist modernity (Rosenberg 2006 ). But such interest has also been driven by empirical phenomena. For example, the fact that slums have become the dominant mode of integrating rural dwellers into the “modern” urban milieu has given rise to a new ethical critique of the progressive assumptions of modernization theory that has been termed “post-development” (see Latouche 1993 ). In fine, the way in which neo-Liberal discourse colonizes the meaning of progress and development with the practices of capitalist modernity has never ceased to be highlighted and problematized (Escobar 1995 ).

But, again, the gendered dimensions of modernization have been consistently underexplored. A number of feminist scholars argued from the 1960s onwards that assumptions held in the Western Academy regarding the naturalness of the gendered division of labor informed much development policy to the detriment of the social standing of women in many modernizing Third World societies (Boserup 1970 ; Rogers 1980 ). Subsequently, feminist political economists introduced the patriarchal family unit to the global structure of uneven development posited by world systems theory (Mies 1986 ). And at the same time as Marxists and “post-development” scholars have critiqued the “new enclosures” of the 1980s and 1990s, feminist scholars have argued that the neo-Liberal discourse is most dangerous in its avoidance of the harm done to the social institutions of care and nurturing by structural adjustment and privatization (Sassen 2000 ; Bakker and Gill 2003 ).

The Anthropological Critique of Modernization

Social anthropology, the intellectual wellspring of modernization theory, has also come under attack (and often by anthropologists themselves) for intellectual complicity in the European colonial project (Asad 1973 ). For example, Johannes Fabian ( 1983 ) argued that, through a stadial narrative of history, ethnography places the contemporaneous object of study – cultural groups – paradoxically in the past, thus rendering them as primitive and feminized objects to be scientifically represented by the modern masculine subject in the form of the ethnographer (for the gender dimension see MacCormack and Strathern 1980 ). Such critiques of social anthropology have also been mobilized in IR to argue that the positing of an anomic international state of nature standing in contradistinction to a domestic commonwealth was a necessary ideological plank for colonial disavowal of the practical and ethical coeval relationship of colonizer and colonized (Jahn 2000 ; Inayatullah and Blaney 2004 ).

The geocultural coordinates of the primitive/modern divide have been increasingly denaturalized, and this has had the effect of bolstering a long-existing critique of the standard definition of modern subjects as – in categorical opposition to the primitive – disembedded from immediate context, thus abstracted, disenchanted, impersonalized, and universalistic in their social action and interaction. Interesting work has been done, for example, regarding the congenital racialization of modern New World identity formations built upon the legacies of slavery (for example Gilroy 1993 ). But perhaps of more significance for IR, because of the current obsession with “political Islam” due to the “global war on terror,” is the questioning of the assumption that modernization equals secularization (Philpott 2002 ).

It is becoming increasingly difficult to take as a starting point Habermas’s Weberian claim ( 1998 ) that the problem of pursuing a modern ethical life arises from the loss of the religious foundation of moral traditions; even Habermas has recently ( 2008 ) qualified – if not entirely disowned – his own secularization thesis. Furthermore, this challenge to one of the central planks of modernization theory undermines the Orientalist assumption – that religious public spheres can only ever exhibit stultified, parochial, and non-progressive ethical codes and thus must be secularized in order to take part in the modern world (see Lerner 1958 ). Although, back in the 1980s, Edward Said ( 1985 ) criticized the neoconservative acceptance of such assumptions, they were again mobilized in the 2000s by the Bush regime to justify its Middle Eastern democracy promotion agenda. While the “civic culture” argument of modernization theory accepted, for the sake of political order, a necessary – but transitional – entwining of old and new social forces in the public sphere, it might be necessary, now, to understand this combination not as a moment of transition but as the enduring substance of the modern public sphere itself. And even from a conservative standpoint, this fraught combination is effectively acknowledged in Huntington’s “clash of civilizations” argument ( 1993 ), an argument that we might also consider to be a logical endpoint of his engagement with modernization theory: Westernization is but one form of modernization.

Indeed, Huntington’s argument fits into a broader reinterpretation of modernization theory, amongst sociologists especially, that attempts to reconcile the singular concept of modernity with the existence of an array of culturally particular path trajectories. “Multiple modernities” is a thesis that attempts to allow for cultural variances – often explored through, or lifted from, ethnographic studies – while still retaining a fidelity to the sociological understanding of modernity (Eisenstadt 2000 ). While scholars of the “multiple modernities” thesis claim that it addresses the plurality of human development, it has been criticized as effectively a modernization narrative in anthropological disguise (Englund and Leach 2000 ). For example, the threshold for when a civilization can be understood to have reached its modernity is determined not by reference to the cultural codes and understandings of that civilization but by reference to an abstracted description of a particular stage of human development that is itself anchored, ultimately, in an ideal-typical reading of the West European modern experience (Bhambra 2007 ).

These disputes indicate that understandings of the condition of modernity and the processes of modernization are still foundationally challenged by the attempt to correlate and explain the relationship between temporal and geocultural difference. The challenge can be no less significant for scholars who believe that the structures, processes, and agents of international relations are quintessentially modern in form and content.

Albrow, M. (1997) The Global Age: State and Society Beyond Modernity . Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Alker, H.R. (1992) The Humanistic Moment in International Studies: Reflections on Machiavelli and Las Casas: 1992 Presidential Address. International Studies Quarterly 36 (4), 347–71.
Almond, G.A. (1960) Introduction: A Functional Approach to Comparative Politics. In G. Almond and J. Coleman (eds.) The Politics of Developing Areas . Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 3–64.
Almond, G.A. , and Verba, S. (1963) The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations . Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Amin, S. (1976) Unequal Development: An Essay on the Social Formations of Peripheral Capitalism . New York: Monthly Review Press.
Asad, T. (1973) Anthropology and the Colonial Encounter . New York: Humanities Press.
Ayoob, M. (1995) The Third World Security Predicament: State Making, Regional Conflict, and the International System . Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.
Bain, W. (2000) Deconfusing Morgenthau: Moral Inquiry and Classical Realism Reconsidered. Review of International Studies 26 (3), 445–64.
Bakker, I. , and Gill, S. (2003) Power, Production, and Social Reproduction: Human In/security in the Global Political Economy . Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Barkawi, T. (1998) Strategy as a Vocation: Weber, Morgenthau and Modern Strategic Studies. Review of International Studies 24 (2), 159–84.
Barkdull, J. (1995) Waltz, Durkheim, and International Relations: The International System as an Abnormal Form. American Political Science Review 89 (3), 669–80.
Barnett, M.N. , and Finnemore, M. (1999) The Politics, Power, and Pathologies of International Organizations. International Organization 53 (4), 699–732.
Bauman, Z. (1989) Modernity and the Holocaust . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Berger, P.L. , and Luckmann, T. (1966) The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge . Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
Berman, M. (1983) All That is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity . London: Verso.
Bhambra, G.K. (2007) Rethinking Modernity: Postcolonialism and the Sociological Imagination . Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Boserup, E. (1970) Woman’s Role in Economic Development . New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Bull, H. (1995) The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World Politics , 2nd edn. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Buzan, B. (1988) People, States and Fear: The National Security Problem in the Third World. In E. Azar and C. Moon (eds.) National Security in the Third World: The Management of Internal and External Threats . Aldershot: Edward Elgar, pp. 14–43.
Cardoso, F.H. , and Faletto, E. (1979) Dependency and Development in Latin America . Berkeley: University of California Press.
Carr, E.H. (2001) The Twenty Years’ Crisis (1919–1939): An Introduction to the Study of International Relations . Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Cox, R.W. (1987) Production, Power, and World Order: Social Forces in the Making of History . New York: Columbia University Press.
Deutsch, K.W. (1961) Social Mobilization and Political Development. American Political Science Review 55 (3), 493–514.
Devetak, R. (1995) The Project of Modernity and International Relations Theory. Millennium: Journal of International Studies 24 (1), 27–51.
Diez, T. , and Steans, J. (2005) A Useful Dialogue? Habermas and International Relations. Review of International Studies 31 (1), 127–40.
Dilthey, W. (1996) The Rise of Hermeneutics. In R. Makkreel and F. Rodi (eds.) Wilhelm Dilthey: Selected Works. Volume IV: Hermeneutics and the Study of History . Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 235–59.
Dos Santos, T. (1970) The Structure of Dependence. American Economic Review 60 (2), 231–6.
Duffield, M.R. (2001) Global Governance and the New Wars: The Merging of Development and Security . New York: Zed Books.
Durkheim, É. (1964) The Division of Labor in Society . New York: Free Press.
Durkheim, É. (1970) Suicide: A Study in Sociology . London: Routledge.
Eisenstadt, S. (2000) Multiple Modernities. Daedalus 129 (1), 1–30.
Elias, N. (1978) What is Sociology? London: Hutchinson.
Elshtain, J. (1987) Women and War . New York: Basic Books.
Englund, H. , and Leach, J. (2000) Ethnography and the Meta-Narratives of Modernity. Current Anthropology 41 (2), 225–48.
Enloe, C. (1990) Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics . Berkeley: University of California Press.
Escobar, A. (1995) Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World . Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Fabian, J. (1983) Time and the Other: How Anthropology Makes its Object . New York: Columbia University Press.
Featherstone, M. , Lash, S. , and Robertson, R. (1995) Global Modernities . London: Sage.
Felski, R. (1995) The Gender of Modernity . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Finnemore, M. (1996) Review: Norms, Culture, and World Politics: Insights from Sociology’s Institutionalism. International Organization 50 (2), 325–47.
Fortes, M. , and Evans-Pritchard, E.E. (1940) African Political Systems . London: Oxford University Press.
Frank, A.G. (1971) Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America: Historical Studies of Chile and Brazil . Harmondsworth: Penguin.
George, J. , and Campbell, D. (1990) Patterns of Dissent and the Celebration of Difference: Critical Social Theory and International Relations. International Studies Quarterly 34 (3), 269–93.
Giddens, A. (1990) The Consequences of Modernity . Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Gill, S. (1995) Globalisation, Market Civilisation, and Disciplinary Neoliberalism. Millennium: Journal of International Studies 24 (3), 399–423.
Gilroy, P. (1993) The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Habermas, J. (1970) Toward a Rational Society: Student Protest, Science, and Politics . Boston: Beacon Press.
Habermas, J. (1971) Knowledge and Human Interests . Boston: Beacon Press.
Habermas, J. (1983) The Theory of Communicative Action. Volume 1: Reason and the Rationalization of Society (trans. T. McCarthy ). Boston: Beacon Press.
Habermas, J. (1987a) Lifeworld and System: A Critique of Functionalist Reason . Cambridge: Polity.
Habermas, J. (1987b) The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity: Twelve Lectures . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Habermas, J. (1997) Modernity: An Unfinished Project. In M. d’Entrèves and S. Benhabib (eds.) Habermas and the Unfinished Project of Modernity . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 38–55.
Habermas, J. (1998) A Genealogical Analysis of the Cognitive Content of Morality. In C. Cronin and P. De Greiff (eds.) The Inclusion of the Other: Studies in Political Theory . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 3–46.
Habermas, J. (2001) The Postnational Constellation: Political Essays (ed. M. Pensky ). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Habermas, J. (2006) February 15, or: What Binds Europeans. In The Divided West . Cambridge: Polity, pp. 39–48.
Habermas, J. (2008) Notes on Post-Secular Society. New Perspectives Quarterly 25 (3), 17–29.
Hoffman, M. (1987) Critical Theory and the Inter-Paradigm Debate. Millennium: Journal of International Studies 16 (2), 231–50.
Holsti, K. (1995) War, Peace, and the State of the State. International Political Science Review 16 (4), 319–39.
Horkheimer, M. , and Adorno, T.W. (1997) Dialectic of Enlightenment . London: Verso.
Huntington, S.P. (1968) Political Order in Changing Societies . New Haven: Yale University Press.
Huntington, S.P. (1993) The Clash of Civilizations? Foreign Affairs 72 (3), 22–49.
Hurd, E.S. (2004) The Political Authority of Secularism in International Relations. European Journal of International Relations 10 (2), 235–62.
Hutchings, K. (2005) Speaking and Hearing: Habermasian Discourse Ethics, Feminism and IR. Review of International Studies 31 (1), 155–65.
Inayatullah, N. , and Blaney, D.L. (2004) International Relations and the Problem of Difference . New York: Routledge.
Jackson, R.H. (1990) Quasi-States: Sovereignty, International Relations, and the Third World . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jahn, B. (2000) The Cultural Construction of International Relations: The Invention of the State of Nature . Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Jameson, F. (1991) Postmodernism, Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism . Durham: Duke University Press.
Janowitz, M. (1964) The Military in the Political Development of New Nations: An Essay in Comparative Analysis . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Jones, C. (1998) E.H. Carr and International Relations: A Duty to Lie . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kant, I. (1991) An Answer to the Question: “What is Enlightenment?” In H. Reiss (ed.) Kant’s Political Writings . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 54–60.
Kaplan, R.D. (2001) The Coming Anarchy: Shattering the Dreams of the Post Cold War . New York: Vintage Books.
Kelly, J. (1984) Women, History and Theory: The Essays of Joan Kelly . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
King, G. , and Zeng, L. (2001) Improving Forecasts of State Failure. World Politics 53 (4), 623–58.
Krasner, S.D. , and Pascual, C. (2005) Addressing State Failure. Foreign Affairs 84 (4), 153–63.
Lapid, Y. (1989) The Third Debate: On the Prospects of International Theory in a Post-Positivist Era. International Studies Quarterly 33 (3), 235–54.
Lash, S. , and Friedman, J. (1992) Introduction: Subjectivity and Modernity’s Other. In S. Lash and J. Friedman (eds.) Modernity and Identity . Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 1–30.
Latouche, S. (1993) In the Wake of the Affluent Society: An Exploration of Post-Development . London: Zed Books.
Lebow, R.N. (2003) The Tragic Vision of Politics: Ethics, Interests, and Orders . New York: Cambridge University Press.
Lerner, D. (1958) The Passing of Traditional Society: Modernizing the Middle East . Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
Linklater, A. (1992) The Question of the Next Stage in the International Relations Theory: A Critical-Theoretical Point of View. Millennium: Journal of International Studies 21 (1), 77–98.
Linklater, A. (1998) The Transformation of Political Community: Ethical Foundations of the Post-Westphalian Era . Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
Linklater, A. (2005) Dialogic Politics and the Civilising Process. Review of International Studies 31 (1), 141–54.
MacCormack, C.P. , and Strathern, M. (1980) Nature, Culture, and Gender . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Malinowski, B. (1922) Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea . London: G. Routledge and Sons.
Mannheim, K. (1936) Ideology and Utopia: An Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge . London: Paul, Trench, Trubner.
Marcuse, H. (1964) One Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society . London: Ark.
Marx, K. (1973) [1861] Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy . Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Marx, K. (1990) [1867] Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Vol. 1 . Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Marx, K. , and Engels, F.E. (1973) [1882] Manifesto of the Communist Party. In D. Fernbach (ed.) The Revolutions of 1848: Political Writings, Vol. 1 . London: Penguin, pp. 67–98.
Masters, R.D. (1964) World Politics as a Primitive Political System. World Politics 16 (4), 595–619.
Mauss, M. (1979) A Category of the Human Mind: The Notion of Person, the Notion of “Self.” In Sociology and Psychology: Essays . London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, pp. 57–94.
McNamara, R.S. (1968) The Essence of Security: Reflections in Office . London: Hodder and Stoughton.
Mead, G.H. (2002) The Objective Reality of Perspectives. In The Philosophy of the Present . Amherst: Prometheus Books, pp. 171–82.
Mearsheimer, J.J. (2005) E.H. Carr vs. Idealism: The Battle Rages On. International Relations 19 (2), 139–52.
Midnight Notes Collective (1990) The New Enclosures. Midnight Notes 10.
Mies, M. (1986) Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale: Women in the International Division of Labor . London: Zed Books.
Migdal, J.S. (1988) Strong Societies and Weak States: State–Society Relations and State Capabilities in the Third World . Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Mills, C.W. (1959) The Sociological Imagination . London: Oxford University Press.
Molloy, S. (2006) The Hidden History of Realism: A Genealogy of Power Politics . New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Murgatroyd, L. (1989) Only Half the Story: Some Blinkering Effects of “Malestream” Sociology. In Social Theory of Modern Societies: Anthony Giddens and His Critics . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 147–61.
Nietzsche, F.W. (1967) [1901] The Will to Power . New York: Random House.
Nietzsche, F.W. (1997) [1891] Thus Spake Zarathustra . Ware: Wordsworth Editions.
Nietzsche, F.W. (2003) [1913] The Genealogy of Morals . Mineola, NY: Dover Publications.
Nisbet, R.A. (1967) The Sociological Tradition . London: Heinemann.
Onuf, N. (1989) World of Our Making: Rules and Rule in Social Theory and International Relations . Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
Palan, R. , and Cameron, A. (2003) The Imagined Economies of Globalization . London: Sage.
Pateman, C. (1988) The Sexual Contract . Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Pauker, G.J. (1959) Southeast Asia as a Problem Area in the Next Decade. World Politics 11 (3), 325–45.
Peterson, U.E. (1999) Breathing Nietzsche’s Air: New Reflections on Morgenthau’s Concepts of Power and Human Nature. Alternatives 24 (1), 83–118.
Philpott, D. (2002) The Challenge of September 11 to Secularism in International Relations. World Politics 55, 66–95.
Pichler, H. (1998) The Godfathers of “Truth”: Max Weber and Carl Schmitt in Morgenthau’s Theory of Power Politics. Review of International Studies 24 (2), 185–200.
Prebisch, R. (1963) Towards a Dynamic Development Policy for Latin America . New York: United Nations.
Pye, L.W. (1962) The Role of the Military in Underdeveloped Countries. In J. Johnson (ed.) Armies in the Process of Political Modernization . Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 69–89.
Pye, L.W. (1966) Aspects of Political Development: An Analytic Study . Boston: Little, Brown.
Radcliffe-Brown, A.R. (1948) The Andaman Islanders . Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
Rogers, B. (1980) The Domestication of Women: Discrimination in Developing Societies . New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Rosenberg, J. (1994) The Empire of Civil Society: A Critique of the Realist Theory of International Relations . London: Verso.
Rosenberg, J. (2006) Why Is There No International Historical Sociology? European Journal of International Relations 12 (3), 307–40.
Rotberg, R. (2002) Failed States in a World of Terror. Foreign Affairs 81 (4), 127–40.
Ruggie, J.G. (1993) Territoriality and Beyond: Problematizing Modernity in International Relations. International Organization 47 (1), 139–74.
Ruggie, J.G. (1998) Constructing the World Polity: Essays on International Institutionalization . London: Routledge.
Rupert, M. (1995) Producing Hegemony: The Politics of Mass Production and American Global Power . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Said, E.W. (1985) Orientalism Reconsidered. Cultural Critique 1, 89–107.
Sampson, A.B. (2002) Tropical Anarchy: Waltz, Wendt, and the Way We Imagine International Politics. Alternatives 27, 429–57.
Sassen, S. (2000) Women’s Burden: Countergeographies of Globalization and the Feminization of Survival. Journal of International Affairs 53 (2), 503–24.
Shaw, M. (2000) Theory of the Global State: Globality as Unfinished Revolution . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Shils, E. (1961) The Calling of Sociology. In T. Parsons , E. Shils , K.D. Naegele , and J.R. Pitts (eds.) Theories of Society: Foundations of Modern Sociological Theory . New York: Free Press, pp. 1405–48.
Simmel, G. (1980) On the Nature of Historical Understanding. In Essays on Interpretation in Social Science . Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 97–126.
Toulmin, S.E. (1990) Cosmopolis: The Hidden Agenda of Modernity . New York: Free Press.
van der Pijl, K. (1998) Transnational Classes and International Relations . London: Routledge.
Veblen, T. (1939) Imperial Germany and the Industrial Revolution . New York: Viking Press.
Walker, R.B.J. (1993) Inside/Outside: International Relations as Political Theory . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wallerstein, I. (1974) Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century . New York: Academic Press.
Waltz, K.N. (1979) Theory of International Politics . Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Weber, M. (1963) The Sociology of Religion . Boston: Beacon Press.
Weber, M. (1975) Roscher and Knies: The Logical Problems of Historical Economics . New York: Free Press.
Weber, M. (1978a) Economy and Society, Vol. 1 . Berkeley: University of California Press.
Weber, M. (1978b) Economy and Society, Vol. 2 . Berkeley: University of California Press.
Weber, M. (1982a) Science as a Vocation. In H. Gerth and C. Mills (eds.) From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology . London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, pp. 129–56.
Weber, M. (1982b) Social Psychology of the World Religions. In H. Gerth and C. Mills (eds.) From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology . London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, pp. 267–301.
Weber, M. (2001) The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism . London: Routledge.
Wendt, A. (1992) Anarchy is What States Make of It: The Social Construction of Power Politics. International Organization 46 (2), 391–425.
Wendt, A. (1995) Constructing International Politics. International Security 20 (1), 71–81.
Wendt, A.E. (1987) The Agent–Structure Problem in International Relations Theory. International Organization 41 (3), 335–70.
Williams, M.C. (2005) The Realist Tradition and the Limits of International Relations . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wood, E.M. (1981) The Separation of the Economic and the Political in Capitalism. New Left Review 127, 66–95.

Acknowledgments

My thanks to Gurminder Bhambra , John Holmwood , Adrienne Roberts , and especially Robert Deuchars for their erudite guidance on readings.

Printed from Oxford Research Encyclopedias, International Studies. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

date: 25 April 2024

Cookie Policy
Privacy Policy
Legal Notice
Accessibility
[66.249.64.20|162.248.224.4]
162.248.224.4

Character limit 500 /500

Search Menu
Browse content in Arts and Humanities
Browse content in Archaeology
Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Archaeology
Archaeological Methodology and Techniques
Archaeology by Region
Archaeology of Religion
Archaeology of Trade and Exchange
Biblical Archaeology
Contemporary and Public Archaeology
Environmental Archaeology
Historical Archaeology
History and Theory of Archaeology
Industrial Archaeology
Landscape Archaeology
Mortuary Archaeology
Prehistoric Archaeology
Underwater Archaeology
Urban Archaeology
Zooarchaeology
Browse content in Architecture
Architectural Structure and Design
History of Architecture
Residential and Domestic Buildings
Theory of Architecture
Browse content in Art
Art Subjects and Themes
History of Art
Industrial and Commercial Art
Theory of Art
Biographical Studies
Byzantine Studies
Browse content in Classical Studies
Classical History
Classical Philosophy
Classical Mythology
Classical Literature
Classical Reception
Classical Art and Architecture
Classical Oratory and Rhetoric
Greek and Roman Papyrology
Greek and Roman Epigraphy
Greek and Roman Law
Greek and Roman Archaeology
Late Antiquity
Religion in the Ancient World
Digital Humanities
Browse content in History
Colonialism and Imperialism
Diplomatic History
Environmental History
Genealogy, Heraldry, Names, and Honours
Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing
Historical Geography
History by Period
History of Emotions
History of Agriculture
History of Education
History of Gender and Sexuality
Industrial History
Intellectual History
International History
Labour History
Legal and Constitutional History
Local and Family History
Maritime History
Military History
National Liberation and Post-Colonialism
Oral History
Political History
Public History
Regional and National History
Revolutions and Rebellions
Slavery and Abolition of Slavery
Social and Cultural History
Theory, Methods, and Historiography
Urban History
World History
Browse content in Language Teaching and Learning
Language Learning (Specific Skills)
Language Teaching Theory and Methods
Browse content in Linguistics
Applied Linguistics
Cognitive Linguistics
Computational Linguistics
Forensic Linguistics
Grammar, Syntax and Morphology
Historical and Diachronic Linguistics
History of English
Language Evolution
Language Reference
Language Acquisition
Language Variation
Language Families
Lexicography
Linguistic Anthropology
Linguistic Theories
Linguistic Typology
Phonetics and Phonology
Psycholinguistics
Sociolinguistics
Translation and Interpretation
Writing Systems
Browse content in Literature
Bibliography
Children's Literature Studies
Literary Studies (Romanticism)
Literary Studies (American)
Literary Studies (Asian)
Literary Studies (European)
Literary Studies (Eco-criticism)
Literary Studies (Modernism)
Literary Studies - World
Literary Studies (1500 to 1800)
Literary Studies (19th Century)
Literary Studies (20th Century onwards)
Literary Studies (African American Literature)
Literary Studies (British and Irish)
Literary Studies (Early and Medieval)
Literary Studies (Fiction, Novelists, and Prose Writers)
Literary Studies (Gender Studies)
Literary Studies (Graphic Novels)
Literary Studies (History of the Book)
Literary Studies (Plays and Playwrights)
Literary Studies (Poetry and Poets)
Literary Studies (Postcolonial Literature)
Literary Studies (Queer Studies)
Literary Studies (Science Fiction)
Literary Studies (Travel Literature)
Literary Studies (War Literature)
Literary Studies (Women's Writing)
Literary Theory and Cultural Studies
Mythology and Folklore
Shakespeare Studies and Criticism
Browse content in Media Studies
Browse content in Music
Applied Music
Dance and Music
Ethics in Music
Ethnomusicology
Gender and Sexuality in Music
Medicine and Music
Music Cultures
Music and Media
Music and Religion
Music and Culture
Music Education and Pedagogy
Music Theory and Analysis
Musical Scores, Lyrics, and Libretti
Musical Structures, Styles, and Techniques
Musicology and Music History
Performance Practice and Studies
Race and Ethnicity in Music
Sound Studies
Browse content in Performing Arts
Browse content in Philosophy
Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art
Epistemology
Feminist Philosophy
History of Western Philosophy
Metaphysics
Moral Philosophy
Non-Western Philosophy
Philosophy of Language
Philosophy of Mind
Philosophy of Perception
Philosophy of Science
Philosophy of Action
Philosophy of Law
Philosophy of Religion
Philosophy of Mathematics and Logic
Practical Ethics
Social and Political Philosophy
Browse content in Religion
Biblical Studies
Christianity
East Asian Religions
History of Religion
Judaism and Jewish Studies
Qumran Studies
Religion and Education
Religion and Health
Religion and Politics
Religion and Science
Religion and Law
Religion and Art, Literature, and Music
Religious Studies
Browse content in Society and Culture
Cookery, Food, and Drink
Cultural Studies
Customs and Traditions
Ethical Issues and Debates
Hobbies, Games, Arts and Crafts
Lifestyle, Home, and Garden
Natural world, Country Life, and Pets
Popular Beliefs and Controversial Knowledge
Sports and Outdoor Recreation
Technology and Society
Travel and Holiday
Visual Culture
Browse content in Law
Arbitration
Browse content in Company and Commercial Law
Commercial Law
Company Law
Browse content in Comparative Law
Systems of Law
Competition Law
Browse content in Constitutional and Administrative Law
Government Powers
Judicial Review
Local Government Law
Military and Defence Law
Parliamentary and Legislative Practice
Construction Law
Contract Law
Browse content in Criminal Law
Criminal Procedure
Criminal Evidence Law
Sentencing and Punishment
Employment and Labour Law
Environment and Energy Law
Browse content in Financial Law
Banking Law
Insolvency Law
History of Law
Human Rights and Immigration
Intellectual Property Law
Browse content in International Law
Private International Law and Conflict of Laws
Public International Law
IT and Communications Law
Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law
Law and Politics
Law and Society
Browse content in Legal System and Practice
Courts and Procedure
Legal Skills and Practice
Primary Sources of Law
Regulation of Legal Profession
Medical and Healthcare Law
Browse content in Policing
Criminal Investigation and Detection
Police and Security Services
Police Procedure and Law
Police Regional Planning
Browse content in Property Law
Personal Property Law
Study and Revision
Terrorism and National Security Law
Browse content in Trusts Law
Wills and Probate or Succession
Browse content in Medicine and Health
Browse content in Allied Health Professions
Arts Therapies
Clinical Science
Dietetics and Nutrition
Occupational Therapy
Operating Department Practice
Physiotherapy
Radiography
Speech and Language Therapy
Browse content in Anaesthetics
General Anaesthesia
Neuroanaesthesia
Clinical Neuroscience
Browse content in Clinical Medicine
Acute Medicine
Cardiovascular Medicine
Clinical Genetics
Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics
Dermatology
Endocrinology and Diabetes
Gastroenterology
Genito-urinary Medicine
Geriatric Medicine
Infectious Diseases
Medical Toxicology
Medical Oncology
Pain Medicine
Palliative Medicine
Rehabilitation Medicine
Respiratory Medicine and Pulmonology
Rheumatology
Sleep Medicine
Sports and Exercise Medicine
Community Medical Services
Critical Care
Emergency Medicine
Forensic Medicine
Haematology
History of Medicine
Browse content in Medical Skills
Clinical Skills
Communication Skills
Nursing Skills
Surgical Skills
Browse content in Medical Dentistry
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
Paediatric Dentistry
Restorative Dentistry and Orthodontics
Surgical Dentistry
Medical Ethics
Medical Statistics and Methodology
Browse content in Neurology
Clinical Neurophysiology
Neuropathology
Nursing Studies
Browse content in Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Gynaecology
Occupational Medicine
Ophthalmology
Otolaryngology (ENT)
Browse content in Paediatrics
Neonatology
Browse content in Pathology
Chemical Pathology
Clinical Cytogenetics and Molecular Genetics
Histopathology
Medical Microbiology and Virology
Patient Education and Information
Browse content in Pharmacology
Psychopharmacology
Browse content in Popular Health
Caring for Others
Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Self-help and Personal Development
Browse content in Preclinical Medicine
Cell Biology
Molecular Biology and Genetics
Reproduction, Growth and Development
Primary Care
Professional Development in Medicine
Browse content in Psychiatry
Addiction Medicine
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Forensic Psychiatry
Learning Disabilities
Old Age Psychiatry
Psychotherapy
Browse content in Public Health and Epidemiology
Epidemiology
Public Health
Browse content in Radiology
Clinical Radiology
Interventional Radiology
Nuclear Medicine
Radiation Oncology
Reproductive Medicine
Browse content in Surgery
Cardiothoracic Surgery
Gastro-intestinal and Colorectal Surgery
General Surgery
Neurosurgery
Paediatric Surgery
Peri-operative Care
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
Surgical Oncology
Transplant Surgery
Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery
Vascular Surgery
Browse content in Science and Mathematics
Browse content in Biological Sciences
Aquatic Biology
Biochemistry
Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
Developmental Biology
Ecology and Conservation
Evolutionary Biology
Genetics and Genomics
Microbiology
Molecular and Cell Biology
Natural History
Plant Sciences and Forestry
Research Methods in Life Sciences
Structural Biology
Systems Biology
Zoology and Animal Sciences
Browse content in Chemistry
Analytical Chemistry
Computational Chemistry
Crystallography
Environmental Chemistry
Industrial Chemistry
Inorganic Chemistry
Materials Chemistry
Medicinal Chemistry
Mineralogy and Gems
Organic Chemistry
Physical Chemistry
Polymer Chemistry
Study and Communication Skills in Chemistry
Theoretical Chemistry
Browse content in Computer Science
Artificial Intelligence
Computer Architecture and Logic Design
Game Studies
Human-Computer Interaction
Mathematical Theory of Computation
Programming Languages
Software Engineering
Systems Analysis and Design
Virtual Reality
Browse content in Computing
Business Applications
Computer Security
Computer Games
Computer Networking and Communications
Digital Lifestyle
Graphical and Digital Media Applications
Operating Systems
Browse content in Earth Sciences and Geography
Atmospheric Sciences
Environmental Geography
Geology and the Lithosphere
Maps and Map-making
Meteorology and Climatology
Oceanography and Hydrology
Palaeontology
Physical Geography and Topography
Regional Geography
Soil Science
Urban Geography
Browse content in Engineering and Technology
Agriculture and Farming
Biological Engineering
Civil Engineering, Surveying, and Building
Electronics and Communications Engineering
Energy Technology
Engineering (General)
Environmental Science, Engineering, and Technology
History of Engineering and Technology
Mechanical Engineering and Materials
Technology of Industrial Chemistry
Transport Technology and Trades
Browse content in Environmental Science
Applied Ecology (Environmental Science)
Conservation of the Environment (Environmental Science)
Environmental Sustainability
Environmentalist Thought and Ideology (Environmental Science)
Management of Land and Natural Resources (Environmental Science)
Natural Disasters (Environmental Science)
Nuclear Issues (Environmental Science)
Pollution and Threats to the Environment (Environmental Science)
Social Impact of Environmental Issues (Environmental Science)
History of Science and Technology
Browse content in Materials Science
Ceramics and Glasses
Composite Materials
Metals, Alloying, and Corrosion
Nanotechnology
Browse content in Mathematics
Applied Mathematics
Biomathematics and Statistics
History of Mathematics
Mathematical Education
Mathematical Finance
Mathematical Analysis
Numerical and Computational Mathematics
Probability and Statistics
Pure Mathematics
Browse content in Neuroscience
Cognition and Behavioural Neuroscience
Development of the Nervous System
Disorders of the Nervous System
History of Neuroscience
Invertebrate Neurobiology
Molecular and Cellular Systems
Neuroendocrinology and Autonomic Nervous System
Neuroscientific Techniques
Sensory and Motor Systems
Browse content in Physics
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
Biological and Medical Physics
Classical Mechanics
Computational Physics
Condensed Matter Physics
Electromagnetism, Optics, and Acoustics
History of Physics
Mathematical and Statistical Physics
Measurement Science
Nuclear Physics
Particles and Fields
Plasma Physics
Quantum Physics
Relativity and Gravitation
Semiconductor and Mesoscopic Physics
Browse content in Psychology
Affective Sciences
Clinical Psychology
Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive Neuroscience
Criminal and Forensic Psychology
Developmental Psychology
Educational Psychology
Evolutionary Psychology
Health Psychology
History and Systems in Psychology
Music Psychology
Neuropsychology
Organizational Psychology
Psychological Assessment and Testing
Psychology of Human-Technology Interaction
Psychology Professional Development and Training
Research Methods in Psychology
Social Psychology
Browse content in Social Sciences
Browse content in Anthropology
Anthropology of Religion
Human Evolution
Medical Anthropology
Physical Anthropology
Regional Anthropology
Social and Cultural Anthropology
Theory and Practice of Anthropology
Browse content in Business and Management
Business Ethics
Business Strategy
Business History
Business and Technology
Business and Government
Business and the Environment
Comparative Management
Corporate Governance
Corporate Social Responsibility
Entrepreneurship
Health Management
Human Resource Management
Industrial and Employment Relations
Industry Studies
Information and Communication Technologies
International Business
Knowledge Management
Management and Management Techniques
Operations Management
Organizational Theory and Behaviour
Pensions and Pension Management
Public and Nonprofit Management
Strategic Management
Supply Chain Management
Browse content in Criminology and Criminal Justice
Criminal Justice
Criminology
Forms of Crime
International and Comparative Criminology
Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice
Development Studies
Browse content in Economics
Agricultural, Environmental, and Natural Resource Economics
Asian Economics
Behavioural Finance
Behavioural Economics and Neuroeconomics
Econometrics and Mathematical Economics
Economic History
Economic Systems
Economic Methodology
Economic Development and Growth
Financial Markets
Financial Institutions and Services
General Economics and Teaching
Health, Education, and Welfare
History of Economic Thought
International Economics
Labour and Demographic Economics
Law and Economics
Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics
Microeconomics
Public Economics
Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics
Welfare Economics
Browse content in Education
Adult Education and Continuous Learning
Care and Counselling of Students
Early Childhood and Elementary Education
Educational Equipment and Technology
Educational Strategies and Policy
Higher and Further Education
Organization and Management of Education
Philosophy and Theory of Education
Schools Studies
Secondary Education
Teaching of a Specific Subject
Teaching of Specific Groups and Special Educational Needs
Teaching Skills and Techniques
Browse content in Environment
Applied Ecology (Social Science)
Climate Change
Conservation of the Environment (Social Science)
Environmentalist Thought and Ideology (Social Science)
Natural Disasters (Environment)
Social Impact of Environmental Issues (Social Science)
Browse content in Human Geography
Cultural Geography
Economic Geography
Political Geography
Browse content in Interdisciplinary Studies
Communication Studies
Museums, Libraries, and Information Sciences
Browse content in Politics
African Politics
Asian Politics
Chinese Politics
Comparative Politics
Conflict Politics
Elections and Electoral Studies
Environmental Politics
European Union
Foreign Policy
Gender and Politics
Human Rights and Politics
Indian Politics
International Relations
International Organization (Politics)
International Political Economy
Irish Politics
Latin American Politics
Middle Eastern Politics
Political Behaviour
Political Economy
Political Institutions
Political Methodology
Political Communication
Political Philosophy
Political Sociology
Political Theory
Politics and Law
Public Policy
Public Administration
Quantitative Political Methodology
Regional Political Studies
Russian Politics
Security Studies
State and Local Government
UK Politics
US Politics
Browse content in Regional and Area Studies
African Studies
Asian Studies
East Asian Studies
Japanese Studies
Latin American Studies
Middle Eastern Studies
Native American Studies
Scottish Studies
Browse content in Research and Information
Research Methods
Browse content in Social Work
Addictions and Substance Misuse
Adoption and Fostering
Care of the Elderly
Child and Adolescent Social Work
Couple and Family Social Work
Developmental and Physical Disabilities Social Work
Direct Practice and Clinical Social Work
Emergency Services
Human Behaviour and the Social Environment
International and Global Issues in Social Work
Mental and Behavioural Health
Social Justice and Human Rights
Social Policy and Advocacy
Social Work and Crime and Justice
Social Work Macro Practice
Social Work Practice Settings
Social Work Research and Evidence-based Practice
Welfare and Benefit Systems
Browse content in Sociology
Childhood Studies
Community Development
Comparative and Historical Sociology
Economic Sociology
Gender and Sexuality
Gerontology and Ageing
Health, Illness, and Medicine
Marriage and the Family
Migration Studies
Occupations, Professions, and Work
Organizations
Population and Demography
Race and Ethnicity
Social Theory
Social Movements and Social Change
Social Research and Statistics
Social Stratification, Inequality, and Mobility
Sociology of Religion
Sociology of Education
Sport and Leisure
Urban and Rural Studies
Browse content in Warfare and Defence
Defence Strategy, Planning, and Research
Land Forces and Warfare
Military Administration
Military Life and Institutions
Naval Forces and Warfare
Other Warfare and Defence Issues
Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution
Weapons and Equipment

< Previous chapter
Next chapter >

5 (page 62) p. 62 Habermas's theory of modernity

Published: May 2005
Cite Icon Cite
Permissions Icon Permissions

In addition to the systematic side of Habermas's philosophy there is an historic side. He takes from the likes of Hegel, Marx, and hermeneutic philosophy that both the objects and discipline of social theory have histories. An explanation of society must give consideration to history. ‘Habermas's theory of modernity’ brings Habermas's theory of modernity and modernizationis theory into sharper focus to shed light on the hidden moral dimension of his social theory. What is the relationship between morality and modernity? Modernity is more than just a period, it is the social, political, cultural, institutional, and psychological conditions that arise from historical processes. Trying to reverse modernization would be futile; the trick is to work with modernity, not against it.

Signed in as

Institutional accounts.

Google Scholar Indexing
GoogleCrawler [DO NOT DELETE]

Personal account

Sign in with email/username & password
Get email alerts
Save searches
Purchase content
Activate your purchase/trial code

Institutional access

Sign in with a library card Sign in with username/password Recommend to your librarian
Institutional account management
Get help with access

Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:

IP based access

Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.

Sign in through your institution

Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth/Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institutionâ€™s website and Oxford Academic.

Click Sign in through your institution.
Select your institution from the list provided, which will take you to your institution's website to sign in.
When on the institution site, please use the credentials provided by your institution. Do not use an Oxford Academic personal account.
Following successful sign in, you will be returned to Oxford Academic.

If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institutionâ€™s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.

Sign in with a library card

Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.

Society Members

Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:

Sign in through society site

Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see â€˜Sign in through society siteâ€™ in the sign in pane within a journal:

Click Sign in through society site.
When on the society site, please use the credentials provided by that society. Do not use an Oxford Academic personal account.

If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.

Sign in using a personal account

Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.

A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.

Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.

Viewing your signed in accounts

Click the account icon in the top right to:

View your signed in personal account and access account management features.
View the institutional accounts that are providing access.

Signed in but can't access content

Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.

For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.

Our books are available by subscription or purchase to libraries and institutions.

About Oxford Academic
Publish journals with us
University press partners
What we publish
New features
Open access
Rights and permissions
Accessibility
Advertising
Media enquiries
Oxford University Press
Oxford Languages
University of Oxford

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide

Copyright © 2024 Oxford University Press
Cookie settings
Cookie policy
Privacy policy
Legal notice

This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Subject List
Take a Tour
For Authors
Subscriber Services
Publications
African American Studies
African Studies
American Literature

Anthropology

Architecture Planning and Preservation
Art History
Atlantic History
Biblical Studies
British and Irish Literature
Childhood Studies
Chinese Studies
Cinema and Media Studies
Communication
Criminology
Environmental Science
Evolutionary Biology
International Law
International Relations
Islamic Studies
Jewish Studies
Latin American Studies
Latino Studies
Linguistics
Literary and Critical Theory
Medieval Studies
Military History
Political Science
Public Health
Renaissance and Reformation
Social Work
Urban Studies
Victorian Literature
Browse All Subjects

How to Subscribe

Free Trials

In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Modernity

Introduction, general overviews.

Religion, Secularism, and Modernity
History, Time, and Temporality
Postcolonial Conditions
Gendered Modernities
Genealogies of the Modern Individual
Modernity as a Relationship to Capitalism
Modernity and the Recalibration of the Senses
Modernization Theory and “Development”
Modernity as Epistemology
Governmentality and Bureaucracy
Technologies, Infrastructures, and Socialities
Humanitarianism and the Rights of the Human
Securitization and Risk
Biopolitics
The New Anthropology of Economy and Finance
Web Resources

Other Subject Areas

Forthcoming articles expand or collapse the "forthcoming articles" section.

Anthropology of Corruption
University Museums
Find more forthcoming articles...
Export Citations
Share This Facebook LinkedIn Twitter

Modernity by Brian Silverstein LAST REVIEWED: 30 March 2017 LAST MODIFIED: 30 March 2017 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199766567-0167

While the discipline of anthropology coalesced in the late 19th century around the study of purportedly “non-Western” (which usually meant non-modern) peoples, much of this work nonetheless sought to say something about the so-called modern West, if only by way of contrast. Much early anthropological writing tended to avoid whatever effects the anthropologist’s society was having on those he studied (and this was a time when the vast majority of anthropologists were men); where such effects were noted, they were generally lamented as being destructive of the “other’s” cultural authenticity, or even of their culture altogether. Anthropological studies of modernity, by contrast, at a minimum situate peoples and locales in the context of broader forces, with their inherent disparities of power. Usually such studies address, even if indirectly, how social forms and subjectivities in a given place have been changing in relation to these broader histories and flows. Perhaps more than in some other areas of anthropology, “meta-level” reflection on the effects of modern (including anthropological) knowledge on the peoples anthropology studies have tended to be part of such work. This points to the dual nature of the relationship between anthropology and modernity. In addition to anthropological studies of modernity, attention has been paid to the ways in which anthropology is a peculiarly, one might say quintessentially modern undertaking, for instance by pointing to the contexts of empire and colonialism in Europeans’ encounter with cultural “others,” or the discipline’s relationship to racialist—not to mention blatantly racist—frameworks for thinking about human difference, or simply the attempt to ground theorization about human nature in a truly comparative science. Work written by anthropologists explicitly focused on something called modernity is a more recent phenomenon. Anthropologists tend not to approach modernity as a period of time, but more as either an ethos, akin to something cultural, albeit a cultural formation making rather unique claims to acultural universality (universal applicability of its knowledges, norms, and truths—and not simply as a result of a projection of Western power), or as a complex assemblage of culture, knowledge, and institutions interacting and coproducing one another. Thus, on the one hand, while anthropology has been in a unique position to view the career of modernity and the forms it takes around the world, on the other, the discipline’s methods and epistemologies have been influential in recent attempts by several disciplines to analyze characteristically modern social forms. A great deal of work read by and influential among anthropologists has been done by scholars working in other disciplines, especially history, philosophy, geography, literature, gender studies, and the study of politics, to name only a few.

A few works are self-conscious attempts by anthropologists and colleagues to reflect on modernity and its careers in various locales around the world. Some are edited volumes of articles examining modernity and globalization ( Inda 2005 , Inda and Rosaldo 2008 ) or epistemological reflections through cases from throughout the world ( Mitchell 2000 , Ong and Collier 2005 , Rabinow 2003 , Taylor 1995 ). Others are wide-ranging discussions of the nature of modernity ( Appadurai 1996 , Giddens 1990 , Latour 1993 , Wagner 2012 ), while Adelkhah 2000 and Crary and Kwinter 1992 look at the emergence and careers of characteristically modern technologies and administrative apparatus in different times and places.

Adelkhah, Fariba. 2000. Being modern in Iran . Translated by Jonathan Derrick. New York: Columbia Univ. Press.

Written in the mid-1990s, Adelkhah examines the articulation of modern techniques of administration and government (taxes, urban renewal, etc.) with more longstanding discourses and practices in Iran.

Appadurai, Arjun. 1996. Modernity at large: Cultural dimensions of globalization . Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press.

A collection of the author’s essays on the new era of mass migration and information circulation, with particular attention to their effects on imaginaries and nation-states.

Crary, Jonathan, and Sanford Kwinter, eds. 1992. Incorporations . New York: Zone.

Textual and visual essays (a few of which are by anthropologists) of varying lengths on 20th-century ways of representing and intervening on bodies, collectivities, and subjectivities, especially in light of developments in sciences, engineering, and the arts.

Giddens, Anthony. 1990. The consequences of modernity . Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press.

A classic statement emphasizing social institutional and organizational aspects of modernity.

Inda, Jonathan Xavier. 2005. Anthropologies of modernity: Foucault, governmentality and life politics . Malden, MA: Blackwell.

DOI: 10.1002/9780470775875

A collection of essays broadly inspired by the work of Michel Foucault, on topics including colonialism, neoliberal technologies of government, technopolitics, biosocialities, and the politics of death.

Inda, Jonathan Xavier, and Renato Rosaldo, eds. 2008. The anthropology of globalization: A reader . 2d ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

A collection of articles by prominent anthropologists exploring the relationship between culture and global flows of people, information, goods, and capital.

Latour, Bruno. 1993. We have never been modern . Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.

Argues that moderns as such make a distinction between nature and culture, but the world they have created continually undermines that distinction.

Mitchell, Timothy, ed. 2000. Questions of modernity . Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press.

Collection of essays by prominent authors on the emergence of modern social forms outside of Europe. Mitchell’s introductory essay is a useful overview of epistemological issues attending the study of modernity, including the world-systems-infused notion that modernity is a product of global reticulations that in turn produced a sense of “self” in the West; thus the “West” would be a product of modernity, not vice versa.

Ong, Aihwa, and Stephen J. Collier. 2005. Global assemblages: Technology, politics and ethics as anthropological problems . Malden, MA: Blackwell.

A collection of original essays exploring the often-indeterminate nature of emergent formations of knowledge and power. The chapters generally operate with the framework of assemblages, in philosopher Gilles Deleuze’s sense of “dispositif,” an interconnected set of forces and actors about which one makes few if any assumptions about agency, but rather undertakes empirical enquiry to ascertain this.

Rabinow, Paul. 2003. Anthropos today: Reflections on modern equipment . Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.

Reflections by a prominent anthropologist on both the present situation and the intellectual and conceptual resources that can be brought to bear on a contingent practice of an anthropology of the contemporary.

Taylor, Charles. 1995. Two theories of modernity. Hastings Center Report 25.2 (March–April): 24–33.

DOI: 10.2307/3562863

A classic account by the Canadian philosopher conversant with anthropology. Taylor lays out what he terms the “acultural” and “cultural” accounts of modernity: the former being an understanding of modernity as universalist, what is left when we strip away error and “come to see” the world as it really is (in light of science), while the latter sees the emergence of modernity as something akin to the emergence of a new culture, with particular worldviews, lifestyles, and moral orientations.

Wagner, Peter. 2012. Modernity: Understanding the present . Cambridge, UK: Polity.

An accessible overview of approaches to the question of what it means to be modern.

Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login .

Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here .

About Anthropology »
Meet the Editorial Board »
Africa, Anthropology of
Agriculture
Animal Cultures
Animal Ritual
Animal Sanctuaries
Anorexia Nervosa
Anthropocene, The
Anthropological Activism and Visual Ethnography
Anthropology and Education
Anthropology and Theology
Anthropology of Islam
Anthropology of Kurdistan
Anthropology of the Senses
Anthrozoology
Antiquity, Ethnography in
Applied Anthropology
Archaeobotany
Archaeological Education
Archaeology
Archaeology and Museums
Archaeology and Political Evolution
Archaeology and Race
Archaeology and the Body
Archaeology, Gender and
Archaeology, Global
Archaeology, Historical
Archaeology, Indigenous
Archaeology of Childhood
Archaeology of the Senses
Art Museums
Art/Aesthetics
Autoethnography
Bakhtin, Mikhail
Bass, William M.
Benedict, Ruth
Binford, Lewis
Bioarchaeology
Biocultural Anthropology
Biological and Physical Anthropology
Biological Citizenship
Boas, Franz
Bone Histology
Bureaucracy
Business Anthropology
Cargo Cults
Charles Sanders Peirce and Anthropological Theory
Christianity, Anthropology of
Citizenship
Class, Archaeology and
Clinical Trials
Cobb, William Montague
Code-switching and Multilingualism
Cognitive Anthropology
Cole, Johnnetta
Consumerism
Crapanzano, Vincent
Cultural Heritage Presentation and Interpretation
Cultural Heritage, Race and
Cultural Materialism
Cultural Relativism
Cultural Resource Management
Culture and Personality
Culture, Popular
Curatorship
Cyber-Archaeology
Dalit Studies
Dance Ethnography
de Heusch, Luc
Deaccessioning
Design, Anthropology and
Digital Anthropology
Disability and Deaf Studies and Anthropology
Douglas, Mary
Drake, St. Clair
Durkheim and the Anthropology of Religion
Economic Anthropology
Embodied/Virtual Environments
Emotion, Anthropology of
Environmental Anthropology
Environmental Justice and Indigeneity
Ethnoarchaeology
Ethnocentrism
Ethnographic Documentary Production
Ethnographic Films from Iran
Ethnography
Ethnography Apps and Games
Ethnohistory and Historical Ethnography
Ethnomusicology
Ethnoscience
Evans-Pritchard, E. E.
Evolution, Cultural
Evolutionary Cognitive Archaeology
Evolutionary Theory
Experimental Archaeology
Federal Indian Law
Feminist Anthropology
Film, Ethnographic
Forensic Anthropology
Francophonie
Frazer, Sir James George
Geertz, Clifford
Gender and Religion
GIS and Archaeology
Global Health
Gluckman, Max
Graphic Anthropology
Haraway, Donna
Healing and Religion
Health and Social Stratification
Health Policy, Anthropology of
Heritage Language
House Museums
Human Adaptability
Human Evolution
Human Rights
Human Rights Films
Humanistic Anthropology
Hurston, Zora Neale
Identity Politics
India, Masculinity, Identity
Indigeneity
Indigenous Boarding School Experiences
Indigenous Economic Development
Indigenous Media: Currents of Engagement
Institutions
Interpretive Anthropology
Intertextuality and Interdiscursivity
Laboratories
Language and Emotion
Language and Law
Language and Media
Language and Race
Language and Urban Place
Language Contact and its Sociocultural Contexts, Anthropol...
Language Ideology
Language Socialization
Leakey, Louis
Legal Anthropology
Legal Pluralism
Liberalism, Anthropology of
Linguistic Anthropology
Linguistic Relativity
Linguistics, Historical
Literary Anthropology
Local Biologies
Lévi-Strauss, Claude
Malinowski, Bronisław
Margaret Mead, Gregory Bateson, and Visual Anthropology
Maritime Archaeology
Material Culture
Materiality
Mathematical Anthropology
Matriarchal Studies
Mead, Margaret
Media Anthropology
Medical Anthropology
Medical Technology and Technique
Mediterranean
Mendel, Gregor
Mental Health and Illness
Mesoamerican Archaeology
Mexican Migration to the United States
Militarism, Anthropology and
Missionization
Morgan, Lewis Henry
Multispecies Ethnography
Museum Anthropology
Museum Education
Museum Studies
NAGPRA and Repatriation of Native American Human Remains a...
Narrative in Sociocultural Studies of Language
Nationalism
Needham, Rodney
Neoliberalism
NGOs, Anthropology of
Niche Construction
Northwest Coast, The
Oceania, Archaeology of
Paleolithic Art
Paleontology
Performance Studies
Performativity
Perspectivism
Philosophy of Museums
Plantations
Political Anthropology
Postprocessual Archaeology
Postsocialism
Poverty, Culture of
Primatology
Primitivism and Race in Ethnographic Film: A Decolonial Re...
Processual Archaeology
Psycholinguistics
Psychological Anthropology
Public Archaeology
Public Sociocultural Anthropologies
Religious Conversion
Repatriation
Reproductive and Maternal Health in Anthropology
Reproductive Technologies
Rhetoric Culture Theory
Rural Anthropology
Sahlins, Marshall
Sapir, Edward
Scandinavia
Science Studies
Settler Colonialism
Sex Estimation
Sign Language
Skeletal Age Estimation
Social Anthropology (British Tradition)
Social Movements
Socialization
Society for Visual Anthropology, History of
Socio-Cultural Approaches to the Anthropology of Reproduct...
Sociolinguistics
Sound Ethnography
Space and Place
Stable Isotopes
Stan Brakhage and Ethnographic Praxis
Structuralism
Studying Up
Sub-Saharan Africa, Democracy in
Surrealism and Anthropology
Technological Organization
Trans Studies in Anthroplogy
Tree-Ring Dating
Turner, Edith L. B.
Turner, Victor
Urban Anthropology
Virtual Ethnography
Visual Anthropology
Whorfian Hypothesis
Willey, Gordon
Wolf, Eric R.
Writing Culture
Youth Culture
Zora Neale Hurston and Visual Anthropology
Privacy Policy
Cookie Policy
Legal Notice
Accessibility

[66.249.64.20|162.248.224.4]
162.248.224.4

Leo Strauss

The three waves of modernity.

"The Three Waves of Modernity," Political Philosophy: Six Essays , ed. Hilail Gildin, Pegasus-Bobbs-Merrill, 1975.

The crisis of modernity reveals itself in the fact, or consists in the fact, that modern western man no longer knows what he wants–that he no longer believes that he can know what is good and bad, what is right and wrong. Until a few generations ago, it was generally taken for granted that man can know what is right and wrong, what is the just or the good or the best order of society–in a word that political philosophy is possible and necessary. In our time this faith has lost its power. According to the pre-dominant view, political philosophy is impossible: it was a dream, perhaps a noble dream, but at any rate a dream. While there is broad agreement on this point, opinions differ as to why political philosophy was based on a fundamental error. According to a very widespread view, all knowledge which deserves the name is scientific knowledge; but scientific knowledge cannot validate value judgments; it is limited to factual judgments; yet political philosophy presupposes that value judgments can be rationally validated. According to a less widespread but more sophisticated view, the predominant separation of facts from values is not tenable.: the categories of theoretical understanding imply, somehow, principles of evaluation; but those principles of evaluation together with the categories of understanding are historically variable; they change from epoch to epoch; hence it is impossible to answer the question of right and wrong or of the best social order in a universally valid manner, in a manner valid for all historical epochs, as political philosophy requires.

Online: Google Books

Theory of Modernity Essay

Theory of modernity is based on the notion of social progress, it implies that all of society, in whatever era they exist and in what region or were located, are involved in a single, all-consuming, the universal process of the ascent of human society from savagery to civilization. Culture of modernity is defining the development of European civilization for four centuries. It based on the idea of progress and human values, which are now, cherished every European: a democratic political system, economic freedom, professional excellence, autonomy, civil society and legal state. The French Revolution - perhaps the most powerful shock of the XVIII century - changed the face of France, giving it a modern character. It …show more content…

As The Age of Enlightenment passed through Europe, these religious identities began to decline due to the development of national ones that were defined by set geographic regions. One of the main characteristics of modernity is the idea of sovereignty which by definition is the supreme and independent power of a state. The first concrete sovereign states came out during the Age of Enlightenment with the French Revolution and its upheavals in its classes as well as its government. The creation of a National Assembly from the members of the Third Estate of France is directly linked to the creation of modern sovereignty and the emergence of an identity free of the traditional social order. Modernity arose during the Age of Enlightenment because there was great social and political upheaval going around. Ideas of the old were being thrown out in the favor of new and progressive ones. People began to move away from the feudalistic society that had set social orders with the church as the main power to a society with set geographic boundaries with the state as the supreme power and not the church. With this came a national identity that strayed away from religion and moved closer to the idea of a nation-state. Before the French Revolution, France was divided into three class systems known as estates. The First Estate was the clergy, the Second being the nobility and the Third being everyone else. The First and Second Estate held a majority of

The Enlightenment Dbq

This time period had three revolutions; The English Revolution in 1688, the French Revolution from 1789-1799, and the American Revolution from 1775 to 1783, and these revolutions led to constitutional democracies. The American and French Revolutions were directly inspired by Enlightenment ideals and respectively marked the peak of its influence and the beginning of its decline. A new understanding of the natural world inspires the age of enlightenment to remodel the social world into accurate models we would find in our rationality. Philosophers of the Enlightenment find flaws in existing political and social authority. They find that the existing authority is masked with mystery and myth of religion, was founded on vague traditions. Philosophers criticized the institutions that were already in place and proposed ideas of new models that they thought would better society. Because of this, the basic structure of today’s government was formed in this time and along with ideas of liberalism and equal human rights. There was an increased toleration of differences among religions. There were also the ideas of checks and balances in government systems to equal out the power. There were many accomplishments of political philosophy during the Enlightenment that led to drastic change in government, the way that society functioned and various other elements. The theory of reason displays its power by

French Revolution Dbq Essay

During the French Revolution, there were three different social categories that separated you depending on how much money were making, and who you were. The First Estate were the clergy, or priests, the Second Estate were the nobility,and last the Third Estate were peasants. For example, there was a picture on the Do Now: The Causes of the French Revolution, that depict the difference in treatment each social group were receiving. The priests were in charge of the Church the main government, and they were rich, they had fancy clothing and lived a great life. The nobles were also rich, if you were a noble back in 1789, you were a police officer, or someone who worked in the community. The peasants were very poor due

Social Structure Of France During The French Revolution Essay

The French Revolution was a time of period where social and political was a disruption in France that lasted from 1789 until 1799. This time of period affected Social Structure of France prior to the French Revolution. The factors that caused this revolution was due to having a bad government system, weak superiority, and inequality of the classes of people in France during the war. In this research, I will define and explain how Social Structure contributed to the French Revolution Resentment of royal authoritarianism. The three estates that social structure consists of are first estate which are the clergies, second estate known as the Nobleman, and third estate which are the Bourgeoisie, peasants, and workers. The Revolution did not omit sharp distinctions among the social groups, neither did it alter the distribution of wealth. This caused them to divide into these three groups called as estates.

Voltaire's Affect on Modern Western Society Essay

As one can see, his ideas of religious freedom and the government is what brought about the French Revolution, which has affected France up to this very day because they no longer have a royal absolutist government like they once had.

To What Extent Was the Enlightenment the Cause of the French Revolution

The birth of the Enlightenment happened during the 18th Century and it emerged from Europe as an intellectual movement of writers and thinkers questioning and challenging the ideas and views that at the time was widely accepted. Especially the Catholic Church was challenged for its traditional and determined values. Their analysis of society was based on reason and rational thoughts rather than superstition and traditional ways. The movement

French Revolution Dbq

This caused a strong dislike of Louis to grow in France. In addition to political problems, France was facing social problems. In document two a graph of the Three Estates is displayed. In France the First Estate which was the clergy, made up only one percent of society, while the Second Estate which contained the nobility made up two percent and the Third Estate, which held all of the commoners made up ninety seven percent of society. The first and second estate contained the least amount of people and enjoyed the most privileges in France.

The French Revolution And The Reign Of Terror

The French revolution which is also referred to as the Revolution of 1789 was a period characterized by both social and political upheaval that span close to a decade in France. It was during this period that the country’s political landscape was redesigned and it involved

Was the French Revolution Successful? Essay

Many historians credit the French Revolution as being the beginning of modern politics. The revolution single-handedly crushed the monarchical way of politics, the aristocratic domination up to that point in France, and the dominance of the church in French politics. The revolution abolished the feudal system and was one of the biggest steps towards modernity throughout history. The French Revolution was a successful endeavour on the part of the French people because it reformed social tradition and the hierarchy of French aristocracy by making all men equal, the Enlightenment ideals which the revolution was based on came through to a great extent.

The Three Estates and Grievances Essay

Before the French Revolution, there were three estates, or classes: the nobility, the clergy and the commoners. The nobility and the clergy had many more privileges than the third estate and that is what caused the French Revolution. The Third estate was composed of the peasants, the workers and the bourgeoisie; unlike the other segments of the Third Estate, the bourgeoisie was able to communicate its grievances to the public during the period after the French Revolution: 1789-1799.

Similarities And Similarities Between The American And French Revolution

There were three Estates during the French Revolution. The First Estate was, the Clergy, it consisted of those employed by the Catholic Church. They had great influence in France, controlling vast amounts of land and were exempt from taxes. The Second Estate, the Nobility, were also exempt from most of the king taxes. They had the best and highest paid jobs in the army, church, and legal professions. The Third Estate, encompassing all the other people not in the other classes. This held the biggest percent of the population and had the greatest economic and social diversity. The vast amount of people in the Third Estate were starved and ragged because of the ever-increasing taxes they had to pay. Because the other two estates did not have to pay taxes, this made it even more difficult for the peasants to survive. The constitution also made the king the absolute

The French Revolution: A Major Turning Point In European History

The French Revolution (1789-1814) was a period that affected the outcome of world history tremendously. This is considered a major turning point in European history which has led to dramatic changes in France and other regions of the world. Various social and political issues led to the start of the revolution. Politically, France suffered under the rule of Louis XVI, who ruled by absolute monarchy. Many people had their natural rights renounced and weren’t able to have a political voice. Socially, France had divided its population within 3 estates (classes). French citizens took it upon themselves to remodel their country 's’ political structure. The French Revolution had encountered both positive and negative effects. However, many Europeans viewed the Revolution as much more than just a bloody massacre. The French Revolution was used to demonstrate new ideology that would emphasize the principles of liberty and equality throughout Europe.

Origins Of The Twin Revolutions

Modernity, it is a macro process of transition from traditional to modern society. “Formation of a modern political map of the world began in early 1800 in Western Europe and maybe characterized as the product of the twin revolutions.” European colonization of the New World, the economic and political development of new territories led to significant changes in the political map. Modernity it is a complex of multi-faceted process that took a place in Europe during the 18th century and had covered all aspects of society. The modernity of the production meant the industrialization - is constantly growing use of machines. In the social sphere modernization is closely linked with urbanization, an unprecedented growth of cities, which led to prevailing in the economic life of society. In the political sphere modernity meant the democracy of political structures, laying the preconditions for the formation of a civil society and rule of law. In the spiritual realm associated with secularization -: the release of all spheres of public and private life from the separation of religion and the church, their worldliness and intensive development of literacy, education, scientific knowledge. All of these are inextricably linked to each other processes of change emotional attitudes of man,

Essay about Causes of the French Revolution

The French Revolution was caused by many factors; some were significant and played a large role while others were of minor consequence. France was one of the richest and most powerful nations even though they were facing some economic difficulties. The French Revolution was a pivotal period in the history of French, European and Western civilization. During this period of time there was the formation of republicanism which replaced the absolute monarchy in France.

Sociology Emile Durkheim and Max Weber

There are many different perspectives on the growth of modernity. Society is constantly changing as more time passes by. People like Emile Durkheim and Max Weber both offer their own individual perspective on how the growth of modernity came about and how we have come to understand today’s society. In the 1890s period Emile Durkheim a sociologist, in France watched the transformation of society go from a ‘primitive’ stance into something more complex also known as ‘organic solidarity’. Max Weber a German sociologist on the other hand, his view was in regards to how the growth of government was a driving force in modernity to maintain order, organisation and administration of specialised functions. Both theses sociologists’ theories are

Analysis Of The Movie 'Modernity'

The term Modernity was coined by Charles Baudelaire. It also refers to post medieval, post traditional historical period which is marked by a move from feudalism towards modernization (capitalism, industrialisation, rationalisation). But conceptually, it also relates to the modern era and to modernism, but forms a distinct concept.

Is Modernity Positive or Negative? Essay

Introduction, modern technology, industrial revolution, human behavior, reference list.

The objective of this paper is to look into modernity and establish whether modernity is positive or negative. Modernity is a term used to denote cultural variance relative to time. To be modern, often means that an individual or something is up to standards as per current transformations and changes.

People tend to embrace modernity because they believe that these changes in environment or setting as enabled by modernizing forces are good; the changes bring with them power and adventure. Modernity is embraced because it is understood to represent progressive change. To be modern is good; however, in some ways modernity seems to be a threat to human survival, individual comfort and the world at large.

According to Berman (1983, p. 38) modernity has exposed human beings and the world at large to danger; it has destroyed what we have, what we know, and all that we are in one way or the other. Many things have changed due to modernity and what we have today is not what we had in the past. In some instances what we have today is an improvement on what had in the past while in other cases, what we have is real disaster.

Modernity is characterized by changes in technology. Modern technology is faster, effective and efficiently. Modern technology has enabled the production of goods and services that are otherwise hard to produce manually (Giddens & Griffiths, 2006, 922). Technological improvement has led to innovation of many gadgets in the world we live.

Examples of innovation include car models, mobile phones, computers, televisions, microwaves and internet. In the current world, people can not envisage a life without the technological objects or gadgets that come in all sorts of models. With modern technology, we are able to save money and time. Introduction of machines has made life easier because people don’t have to do work manually. Computers have improved communication through internet.

People communicate through email and this saves a lot of time because emails are delivered immediately. In addition, internet is much cheaper than other means of communication. There are machines which have helped people save a lot of money and time e.g. the washing machines. They save time because they work fast and there is no need of employing many people, thus these machines help people save money. All these technological advancement have brought joy and made our world grow.

Regardless of all these advantages, there are disadvantages which come with these technologies. While other people are benefiting from the development of machines, others are losing their jobs. This is because machines are continually being used to substitute people at the workplace.

People who lose their jobs have no source of income anymore and this causes life to get hard for them. Another disadvantage is that machines break down often and thus bring in extra costs. When computers fail, people lose a lot of important data they had stored in the computers. Machines require a professional to repair and sometimes when they break down; these people are not available, which causes work to stall.

Modernity is often used to mean the age of enlightenment. Historically, enlightenment or modernity is known to have precipitated into the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution of the renaissance age continues to this age. Industries are constantly transforming in tandem with changed societal characteristics (Woodward, 2003, p. 56).

Improved technology, inventions in communication and improvement of transportation means and modes has led to a sustained revolution in the industrial sector. Changes in agriculture have also contributed to a sustained industrial evolution.

Growth of industries and factories led to the growth of modern towns, which is a positive development. However, the growth of towns has in turn led to many people migrating from the rural areas to the cities in search of jobs in the factories and industries (Wagner, 1994, 125).

Rural to urban migration has led to a population upsurge in the urban centers of the world. The massive populations in the world urban centers increasingly remain a headache for many city planners. The available social amenities can not support the ever increasing numbers.

Another effect of industrial revolution on many people is increase in individual wealth. Many people who own and work in the factories and industries have been able to make their lives better because they have a source of income. However, industrial growth and related growth in individual wealth has had negative effects on many people socially (Woodward, 2003, p. 79).

Due to modernity craze, the world has witnessed an increase in child labor in many countries. Because of rise in population especially in some Third World countries, and lack of education opportunities, children have been forced to work to take care for their poor families. Industrialization due to modernity has led to many social, political and economic changes. The way of working, family life and migration from rural areas to urban areas have all been caused by modernization (Barker, 2008, p. 442).

Modernity in the world of today is characterized by a movement towards liberalism. Different people’s traditional cultures; way of life and traditions have adversely changed as a result of modernization (Baum, 1980, p.38). Due to people from different cultures integrating, other people have lost their cultural identities. Although globalization has led to loss of cultural identities, it is also beneficial because many a people have been liberated from cultural practices which were not life affirming.

Modernity has caused a change in human behavior. In the past or traditional societies, people trusted each other and everyone was a friend. People encouraged the spirit of collectiveness and they came together in case of personal, community or family crisis. Even when it came to lending a neighbor something, they did it without fearing or expecting anything in return.

Modernity has led to an increase in population and a rise in crime. People no longer trust others; especially those from outside their nuclear family unit. Modernity has also caused changes in family life. The extended family is no longer considered important but as a unit that is there to misuse the nuclear family.

Modernity is fueled by education or development in learning schemes and programs. In the modern world, basic education is equally important and open to everyone. This is a positive effect of modernity because in the pre-modern world, education was viewed as a privilege and only for a particular people especially the rich.

In the modern world all individuals have a right to some basic education (Sullivan, 2007, p.56). In addition to basic education, people are pursuing higher education and it doesn’t matter whether they are rich or poor. This has given rise to many schools, colleges and universities all over the world.

Modernity has caused changes in many areas of people’s lives. The traditional way of life has been transformed completely and many villages are continuing to grow into big towns and cities. Furthermore, people continue to move to big cities; some continue to migrate to more developed countries in search of greener pastures. To be modern is good but society needs to rethink modernity. This is because; alongside the positive developments and transformations that characterize modernity are some negative effects.

The negative effects are profound, the more reason why some modern sociologists are alarmed. The modern world is liberal in attitude and does not accommodate much of the traditional values (Rex, 1973, p. 69). Loss of traditional innocence and values is posited as one of the major causes of self alienation in modern society. People no longer find happiness in being who they are in the world. Unless checked, such like developments are a grave danger to the survival of society.

Barker, C . (2008). Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice . Newbury Park: SAGE Publications

Baum, G. (1980). Sociology and Human Destiny: Essays on Sociology, Religion, and Society. New York : Seabury Press

Berman, M. (1983). All that is Solid Melts into Air: the Experience of Modernity . London: Verso Publishers

Giddens, A., & Griffiths, S. (2006). Sociology . Cambridge: Polity Publishers

Rex, J. (1973). Discovering Sociology: Studies in Sociological Theory and Method. New York: Routledge

Sullivan, T, J. (2007). Sociology: Concepts and Applications in a Diverse World. London: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon

Wagner, P. (1994). A Sociology of Modernity: Liberty and Discipline. New York: Routledge

Woodward, K. (2003). Social Sciences: The Big Issues. New York: Routledge, 20

Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2020, January 12). Is Modernity Positive or Negative? https://ivypanda.com/essays/to-be-modern/

"Is Modernity Positive or Negative?" IvyPanda , 12 Jan. 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/to-be-modern/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'Is Modernity Positive or Negative'. 12 January.

IvyPanda . 2020. "Is Modernity Positive or Negative?" January 12, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/to-be-modern/.

1. IvyPanda . "Is Modernity Positive or Negative?" January 12, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/to-be-modern/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Is Modernity Positive or Negative?" January 12, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/to-be-modern/.

Modernity Theory and Social Change
Sociology and Globalization or Modernity
The Peculiarities of Living in Modernity
Pertti Anttonen's Tradition In and Out of Modernity
Islam and Politics: Modernity Challenges
Gender Identity: Modernity and the Witch Hunts
"Modernity Here and Now" Analysis
The problem of modernity
Was the Holocaust the failure of or the product of Modernity?
The Peculiarities of Modernity in the United Arab Emirates
Beauty Concepts in Saudi Arabia
Ulrich Beck and his opinion
Processes of Individualization and Responsibilisation in the Risk Society
Reflection of Society Today
Theme of Sex Education in "Superbad" (2007)

Get science-backed answers as you write with Paperpal's Research feature

How to Write an Essay Introduction (with Examples)  

The introduction of an essay plays a critical role in engaging the reader and providing contextual information about the topic. It sets the stage for the rest of the essay, establishes the tone and style, and motivates the reader to continue reading.

What is an essay introduction , what to include in an essay introduction, how to create an essay structure , step-by-step process for writing an essay introduction , how to write an introduction paragraph , how to write a hook for your essay , how to include background information , how to write a thesis statement .

Argumentative Essay Introduction Example:
Expository Essay Introduction Example

Literary Analysis Essay Introduction Example

Check and revise – checklist for essay introduction , key takeaways , frequently asked questions .

An introduction is the opening section of an essay, paper, or other written work. It introduces the topic and provides background information, context, and an overview of what the reader can expect from the rest of the work. 1 The key is to be concise and to the point, providing enough information to engage the reader without delving into excessive detail.

The essay introduction is crucial as it sets the tone for the entire piece and provides the reader with a roadmap of what to expect. Here are key elements to include in your essay introduction:

Hook : Start with an attention-grabbing statement or question to engage the reader. This could be a surprising fact, a relevant quote, or a compelling anecdote.
Background information : Provide context and background information to help the reader understand the topic. This can include historical information, definitions of key terms, or an overview of the current state of affairs related to your topic.
Thesis statement : Clearly state your main argument or position on the topic. Your thesis should be concise and specific, providing a clear direction for your essay.

Before we get into how to write an essay introduction, we need to know how it is structured. The structure of an essay is crucial for organizing your thoughts and presenting them clearly and logically. It is divided as follows: 2

Introduction:  The introduction should grab the reader’s attention with a hook, provide context, and include a thesis statement that presents the main argument or purpose of the essay.
Body:  The body should consist of focused paragraphs that support your thesis statement using evidence and analysis. Each paragraph should concentrate on a single central idea or argument and provide evidence, examples, or analysis to back it up.
Conclusion:  The conclusion should summarize the main points and restate the thesis differently. End with a final statement that leaves a lasting impression on the reader. Avoid new information or arguments.

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to write an essay introduction:

Start with a Hook : Begin your introduction paragraph with an attention-grabbing statement, question, quote, or anecdote related to your topic. The hook should pique the reader’s interest and encourage them to continue reading.
Provide Background Information : This helps the reader understand the relevance and importance of the topic.
State Your Thesis Statement : The last sentence is the main argument or point of your essay. It should be clear, concise, and directly address the topic of your essay.
Preview the Main Points : This gives the reader an idea of what to expect and how you will support your thesis.
Keep it Concise and Clear : Avoid going into too much detail or including information not directly relevant to your topic.
Revise : Revise your introduction after you’ve written the rest of your essay to ensure it aligns with your final argument.

Here’s an example of an essay introduction paragraph about the importance of education:

Education is often viewed as a fundamental human right and a key social and economic development driver. As Nelson Mandela once famously said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” It is the key to unlocking a wide range of opportunities and benefits for individuals, societies, and nations. In today’s constantly evolving world, education has become even more critical. It has expanded beyond traditional classroom learning to include digital and remote learning, making education more accessible and convenient. This essay will delve into the importance of education in empowering individuals to achieve their dreams, improving societies by promoting social justice and equality, and driving economic growth by developing a skilled workforce and promoting innovation.

This introduction paragraph example includes a hook (the quote by Nelson Mandela), provides some background information on education, and states the thesis statement (the importance of education).

This is one of the key steps in how to write an essay introduction. Crafting a compelling hook is vital because it sets the tone for your entire essay and determines whether your readers will stay interested. A good hook draws the reader in and sets the stage for the rest of your essay.

Avoid Dry Fact : Instead of simply stating a bland fact, try to make it engaging and relevant to your topic. For example, if you’re writing about the benefits of exercise, you could start with a startling statistic like, “Did you know that regular exercise can increase your lifespan by up to seven years?”
Avoid Using a Dictionary Definition : While definitions can be informative, they’re not always the most captivating way to start an essay. Instead, try to use a quote, anecdote, or provocative question to pique the reader’s interest. For instance, if you’re writing about freedom, you could begin with a quote from a famous freedom fighter or philosopher.
Do Not Just State a Fact That the Reader Already Knows : This ties back to the first point—your hook should surprise or intrigue the reader. For Here’s an introduction paragraph example, if you’re writing about climate change, you could start with a thought-provoking statement like, “Despite overwhelming evidence, many people still refuse to believe in the reality of climate change.”

Including background information in the introduction section of your essay is important to provide context and establish the relevance of your topic. When writing the background information, you can follow these steps:

Start with a General Statement:  Begin with a general statement about the topic and gradually narrow it down to your specific focus. For example, when discussing the impact of social media, you can begin by making a broad statement about social media and its widespread use in today’s society, as follows: “Social media has become an integral part of modern life, with billions of users worldwide.”
Define Key Terms : Define any key terms or concepts that may be unfamiliar to your readers but are essential for understanding your argument.
Provide Relevant Statistics:  Use statistics or facts to highlight the significance of the issue you’re discussing. For instance, “According to a report by Statista, the number of social media users is expected to reach 4.41 billion by 2025.”
Discuss the Evolution:  Mention previous research or studies that have been conducted on the topic, especially those that are relevant to your argument. Mention key milestones or developments that have shaped its current impact. You can also outline some of the major effects of social media. For example, you can briefly describe how social media has evolved, including positives such as increased connectivity and issues like cyberbullying and privacy concerns.
Transition to Your Thesis:  Use the background information to lead into your thesis statement, which should clearly state the main argument or purpose of your essay. For example, “Given its pervasive influence, it is crucial to examine the impact of social media on mental health.”

A thesis statement is a concise summary of the main point or claim of an essay, research paper, or other type of academic writing. It appears near the end of the introduction. Here’s how to write a thesis statement:

Identify the topic:  Start by identifying the topic of your essay. For example, if your essay is about the importance of exercise for overall health, your topic is “exercise.”
State your position:  Next, state your position or claim about the topic. This is the main argument or point you want to make. For example, if you believe that regular exercise is crucial for maintaining good health, your position could be: “Regular exercise is essential for maintaining good health.”
Support your position:  Provide a brief overview of the reasons or evidence that support your position. These will be the main points of your essay. For example, if you’re writing an essay about the importance of exercise, you could mention the physical health benefits, mental health benefits, and the role of exercise in disease prevention.
Make it specific:  Ensure your thesis statement clearly states what you will discuss in your essay. For example, instead of saying, “Exercise is good for you,” you could say, “Regular exercise, including cardiovascular and strength training, can improve overall health and reduce the risk of chronic diseases.”

Examples of essay introduction

Here are examples of essay introductions for different types of essays:

Argumentative Essay Introduction Example:

Topic: Should the voting age be lowered to 16?

“The question of whether the voting age should be lowered to 16 has sparked nationwide debate. While some argue that 16-year-olds lack the requisite maturity and knowledge to make informed decisions, others argue that doing so would imbue young people with agency and give them a voice in shaping their future.”

Expository Essay Introduction Example

Topic: The benefits of regular exercise

“In today’s fast-paced world, the importance of regular exercise cannot be overstated. From improving physical health to boosting mental well-being, the benefits of exercise are numerous and far-reaching. This essay will examine the various advantages of regular exercise and provide tips on incorporating it into your daily routine.”

Text: “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee

“Harper Lee’s novel, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ is a timeless classic that explores themes of racism, injustice, and morality in the American South. Through the eyes of young Scout Finch, the reader is taken on a journey that challenges societal norms and forces characters to confront their prejudices. This essay will analyze the novel’s use of symbolism, character development, and narrative structure to uncover its deeper meaning and relevance to contemporary society.”

Engaging and Relevant First Sentence : The opening sentence captures the reader’s attention and relates directly to the topic.
Background Information : Enough background information is introduced to provide context for the thesis statement.
Definition of Important Terms : Key terms or concepts that might be unfamiliar to the audience or are central to the argument are defined.
Clear Thesis Statement : The thesis statement presents the main point or argument of the essay.
Relevance to Main Body : Everything in the introduction directly relates to and sets up the discussion in the main body of the essay.

Writing a strong introduction is crucial for setting the tone and context of your essay. Here are the key takeaways for how to write essay introduction: 3

Hook the Reader : Start with an engaging hook to grab the reader’s attention. This could be a compelling question, a surprising fact, a relevant quote, or an anecdote.
Provide Background : Give a brief overview of the topic, setting the context and stage for the discussion.
Thesis Statement : State your thesis, which is the main argument or point of your essay. It should be concise, clear, and specific.
Preview the Structure : Outline the main points or arguments to help the reader understand the organization of your essay.
Keep it Concise : Avoid including unnecessary details or information not directly related to your thesis.
Revise and Edit : Revise your introduction to ensure clarity, coherence, and relevance. Check for grammar and spelling errors.
Seek Feedback : Get feedback from peers or instructors to improve your introduction further.

The purpose of an essay introduction is to give an overview of the topic, context, and main ideas of the essay. It is meant to engage the reader, establish the tone for the rest of the essay, and introduce the thesis statement or central argument.

An essay introduction typically ranges from 5-10% of the total word count. For example, in a 1,000-word essay, the introduction would be roughly 50-100 words. However, the length can vary depending on the complexity of the topic and the overall length of the essay.

An essay introduction is critical in engaging the reader and providing contextual information about the topic. To ensure its effectiveness, consider incorporating these key elements: a compelling hook, background information, a clear thesis statement, an outline of the essay’s scope, a smooth transition to the body, and optional signposting sentences.

The process of writing an essay introduction is not necessarily straightforward, but there are several strategies that can be employed to achieve this end. When experiencing difficulty initiating the process, consider the following techniques: begin with an anecdote, a quotation, an image, a question, or a startling fact to pique the reader’s interest. It may also be helpful to consider the five W’s of journalism: who, what, when, where, why, and how. For instance, an anecdotal opening could be structured as follows: “As I ascended the stage, momentarily blinded by the intense lights, I could sense the weight of a hundred eyes upon me, anticipating my next move. The topic of discussion was climate change, a subject I was passionate about, and it was my first public speaking event. Little did I know , that pivotal moment would not only alter my perspective but also chart my life’s course.”

Crafting a compelling thesis statement for your introduction paragraph is crucial to grab your reader’s attention. To achieve this, avoid using overused phrases such as “In this paper, I will write about” or “I will focus on” as they lack originality. Instead, strive to engage your reader by substantiating your stance or proposition with a “so what” clause. While writing your thesis statement, aim to be precise, succinct, and clear in conveying your main argument.

To create an effective essay introduction, ensure it is clear, engaging, relevant, and contains a concise thesis statement. It should transition smoothly into the essay and be long enough to cover necessary points but not become overwhelming. Seek feedback from peers or instructors to assess its effectiveness.

References

Cui, L. (2022). Unit 6 Essay Introduction.  Building Academic Writing Skills .
West, H., Malcolm, G., Keywood, S., & Hill, J. (2019). Writing a successful essay.  Journal of Geography in Higher Education ,  43 (4), 609-617.
Beavers, M. E., Thoune, D. L., & McBeth, M. (2023). Bibliographic Essay: Reading, Researching, Teaching, and Writing with Hooks: A Queer Literacy Sponsorship. College English, 85(3), 230-242.

Paperpal is a comprehensive AI writing toolkit that helps students and researchers achieve 2x the writing in half the time. It leverages 21+ years of STM experience and insights from millions of research articles to provide in-depth academic writing, language editing, and submission readiness support to help you write better, faster.

Get accurate academic translations, rewriting support, grammar checks, vocabulary suggestions, and generative AI assistance that delivers human precision at machine speed. Try for free or upgrade to Paperpal Prime starting at US$19 a month to access premium features, including consistency, plagiarism, and 30+ submission readiness checks to help you succeed.

Experience the future of academic writing – Sign up to Paperpal and start writing for free!

Similarity Checks: The Author’s Guide to Plagiarism and Responsible Writing

Types of plagiarism and 6 tips to avoid it in your writing , you may also like, what is academic writing: tips for students, what is hedging in academic writing , how to use ai to enhance your college..., how to use paperpal to generate emails &..., ai in education: it’s time to change the..., is it ethical to use ai-generated abstracts without..., do plagiarism checkers detect ai content, word choice problems: how to use the right..., how to avoid plagiarism when using generative ai..., what are journal guidelines on using generative ai....

The Modern Essay in Brazil

Published: 25 May 2020
Volume 51 , pages 318–329, ( 2020 )

Cite this article

Maria Arminda do Nascimento Arruda 1

139 Accesses

Explore all metrics

We analyze the construction of the modern essay in Brazil, inaugurated by the so-called 1930s generation: Gilberto Freyre’s Casa-grande e senzala , Caio Prado Júnior’s Evolução política do Brasil , and Sérgio Buarque de Holanda’s Raízes do Brasil . Based on the classic theoretical references on the essay, we approach the modern Brazilian essay under three aspects. First, its context and historical significance, especially from the point of view of the intellectual tradition outlined by Antonio Candido. We argue that the Brazilian essay emerges in interface with modernist art and the socio-political problem of the country’s modernization. Secondly, we argue that Holanda’s work stands out in the 1930s Brazilian essayism as the most effective accomplishment of the essay as a form. Finally, we show how Florestan Fernandes’ intellectual and historical experience represents both an update and a breakdown of Brazilian essayism in the 1970s.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA) Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Rent this article via DeepDyve

Institutional subscriptions

The Sociological Invention of Brazil: Essays and the Social Sciences

Reviewing a Genre

Heinrich Heine and Marx As Essayists: On the Genesis and the Function of the Critic-Intellectuals

Adorno, T. W. 1984. The Essay as Form. New German Critique , No. 38 (Spring-Summer).

Arruda, Maria Arminda do Nascimento 2014. Lúcio Cardoso: tempo, poesia e ficção. In: Cultura e Sociedade Brasil e Argentina , Sérgio Miceli e Heloísa Pontes (org.), São Paulo: EDUSP.

Arruda, Maria do Nascimento Arminda 2015. Metrópole e Cultura. São Paulo no meio século XX . São Paulo: EDUSP, 2ª Ed.

Bloom, H. 2005. Essayist and prophets . Chelsea House Publishers.

Bosi, A. 1977. História concisa da literatura brasileira . São Paulo: Cultrix.

Bourdieu, P. 1998. Linguagem e poder simbólico . In: Economia das trocas linguísticas: o que falar quer dizer . São Paulo: EDUSP.

Candido, A. 1963. Prefácio In: Raízes do Brasil . Brasília: Ed. Universidade de Brasília, 4ª Ed.

Candido, A. 1975. Formação da literatura brasileira. Momentos decisivos . Belo Horizonte: Ed. Itatiaia, São Paulo: EDUSP, 2 vol.

Candido, A. 2000. A revolução de 1930 e a cultura In: Educação pela noite e outros ensaios . São Paulo: Ed. Ática, 3ª Ed.

Casanova, P. 2002. A república mundial das letras . São Paulo: Estação Liberdade.

Duarte, P. 2016. Desvio para o ensaio. O elogiável risco de escrever sem ter fim. In: Ilustríssima. Folha de São Paulo . 28 de fevereiro de, pp. 4–5.

Fernandes, F. 1960. O homem e a cidade metrópole In: Mudanças sociais no Brasil . São Paulo: Difel.

Fernandes, F. 1975. A revolução burguesa no Brasil. Ensaio de interpretação sociológica . Rio de Janeiro: Zahar.

Freyre, G. 1993. Casa grande e senzala . Brasília: Ed. Universidade de Brasília, 13ª Ed.

Fuentes, C. 1980. La Nueva novela hispano-americana . México: Fondo de Cultura.

Holanda, S. 1963. Raízes do Brasil . Brasília: Editora Universidade de Brasília, 4ªEd.

Jackson, L. C., Blanco, A. 2014. Sociologia no espelho. Ensaístas, cientistas sociais e críticos literários no Brasil e Argentina (1930-1970) . São Paulo: Ed. 34.

Lafetá, J. L. 1974. A crítica e o modernismo . São Paulo: Duas Cidades.

Lukács, G. 1974. On the nature and form of the essay. In: Soul and form . London: Merlin Press.

Morse, R. M. 1995. The multiverse of Latin American identity, c. 1920-c. 1970. In: BETHELL, Leslie. Ideas and ideologies in twentieth century Latin America: The Cambridge history of Latin America. Vol. 10 . New York: Cambridge University Press.

Pontes, H. 2003. Destinos mistos: os críticos do Grupo Clima . São Paulo: Cia. das Letras.

Prado, P. 1981. Retrato do Brasil. Sobre a tristeza brasileira . São Paulo: Ibrasa/MEC, 2ªEd.

Prado, A. A. 2004. Trincheira, palco e letras. Crítica, literatura e utopia no Brasil . São Paulo: Cosac Naify.

Prado, A. A. 2010. Itinerário de uma falsa vanguarda. Os dissidentes da semana de 22 e o integralismo . São Paulo: Editora 34.

Prado, A. A. 2015a. Cenário com retratos. Esboços e perfis . São Paulo: Cia. das letras.

Prado, A. A. 2015b. Dois letrados e o Brasil nação. A obra crítica de Oliveira Lima e Sérgio Buarque de Holanda . São Paulo: Editora 34.

Prado Jr., C. 1961. Evolução política do Brasil e outros estudos . São Paulo: Brasiliense. 3ªEd.

Said, E. W. 1994. Representations of the intellectual. The 1933 Reith lectures . New York: Vintage Books.

Saítta, S. 2004. Modos de pensar lo social. Ensayo y sociedad en la Argentina (1930–1965). In: Intelectuales y expertos. La constitución del conocimiento social en la Argentina. Federico Neiburg e Mariano Plotkin (Org) . Paidós: Buenos Aires.

Sapiro, G. 2016. La sociología de la literatura . Buenos Aires: Fondo de Cultura Económica.

Schwarz, R. 1999. Sobre a formação da literatura brasileira; os sete fôlegos de um livro In: Sequências brasileiras . São Paulo: Cia. das Letras.

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Sociology Department, Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Human Sciences, University of São Paulo (USP), Rua do Lago, 717, sala 100, Cidade Universitária, São Paulo, SP, 05508-080, Brazil

Maria Arminda do Nascimento Arruda

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maria Arminda do Nascimento Arruda .

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest.

The author declare that she has no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher’s note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

do Nascimento Arruda, M.A. The Modern Essay in Brazil. Am Soc 51 , 318–329 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-020-09445-1

Download citation

Published : 25 May 2020

Issue Date : September 2020

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-020-09445-1

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Brazilian thought
Brazilian sociology
Sergio Buarque de Holanda
Antonio Candido
Florestan Fernandes
Find a journal
Publish with us
Track your research

Share full article

For more audio journalism and storytelling, download New York Times Audio , a new iOS app available for news subscribers.

April 25, 2024 • 40:33 The Crackdown on Student Protesters
April 24, 2024 • 32:18 Is $60 Billion Enough to Save Ukraine?
April 23, 2024 • 30:30 A Salacious Conspiracy or Just 34 Pieces of Paper?
April 22, 2024 • 24:30 The Evolving Danger of the New Bird Flu
April 19, 2024 • 30:42 The Supreme Court Takes Up Homelessness
April 18, 2024 • 30:07 The Opening Days of Trump’s First Criminal Trial
April 17, 2024 • 24:52 Are ‘Forever Chemicals’ a Forever Problem?
April 16, 2024 • 29:29 A.I.’s Original Sin
April 15, 2024 • 24:07 Iran’s Unprecedented Attack on Israel
April 14, 2024 • 46:17 The Sunday Read: ‘What I Saw Working at The National Enquirer During Donald Trump’s Rise’
April 12, 2024 • 34:23 How One Family Lost $900,000 in a Timeshare Scam
April 11, 2024 • 28:39 The Staggering Success of Trump’s Trial Delay Tactics

The Crackdown on Student Protesters

Columbia university is at the center of a growing showdown over the war in gaza and the limits of free speech..

Hosted by Michael Barbaro

Featuring Nicholas Fandos

Produced by Sydney Harper , Asthaa Chaturvedi , Olivia Natt , Nina Feldman and Summer Thomad

With Michael Simon Johnson

Edited by Devon Taylor and Lisa Chow

Original music by Marion Lozano and Dan Powell

Engineered by Chris Wood

Listen and follow The Daily Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music

Columbia University has become the epicenter of a growing showdown between student protesters, college administrators and Congress over the war in Gaza and the limits of free speech.

Nicholas Fandos, who covers New York politics and government for The Times, walks us through the intense week at the university. And Isabella Ramírez, the editor in chief of Columbia’s undergraduate newspaper, explains what it has all looked like to a student on campus.

On today’s episode

Nicholas Fandos , who covers New York politics and government for The New York Times

Isabella Ramírez , editor in chief of The Columbia Daily Spectator

A university building during the early morning hours. Tents are set up on the front lawn. Banners are displayed on the hedges.

Background reading

Inside the week that shook Columbia University .

The protests at the university continued after more than 100 arrests.

There are a lot of ways to listen to The Daily. Here’s how.

We aim to make transcripts available the next workday after an episode’s publication. You can find them at the top of the page.

Research help by Susan Lee .

The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Dan Farrell, Sophia Lanman, Shannon Lin, Diane Wong, Devon Taylor, Alyssa Moxley, Summer Thomad, Olivia Natt, Daniel Ramirez and Brendan Klinkenberg.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Paula Szuchman, Lisa Tobin, Larissa Anderson, Julia Simon, Sofia Milan, Mahima Chablani, Elizabeth Davis-Moorer, Jeffrey Miranda, Renan Borelli, Maddy Masiello, Isabella Anderson and Nina Lassam.

Nicholas Fandos is a Times reporter covering New York politics and government. More about Nicholas Fandos

IMAGES

Understanding Modernism: An In-Depth Analysis Free Essay Example
Modernism as a Movement Essay Example
V&A Museum from 19th to Modernity Essay Example
Essay introduction writing
Learn How to Write an Essay Introduction with Examples
Modernityessay

VIDEO

MODERNITY IN BENGAL INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION VIDEO
3367-Apr-1-Longer Paper; Un-essay; Wilde
CSS English Essay Modernity is an Unending ProcessI By M Farhan Khan Abbasi
SIMPS ARE DESTROYING GEN Z
CSS Essay Modernity is An Unending Process I English Essay I CSS I IAS I By M Farhan Khan Abbasi

COMMENTS

Essay on Modernity
500 Words Essay on Modernity Introduction to Modernity. Modernity, as an epoch and concept, is a significant area of study within various academic disciplines. It typically refers to a post-medieval historical period, one marked by the move from feudalism towards capitalism, industrialization, secularization, rationalization, the nation-state ...
What is Modernity?
In broad terms, modernity refers to a historic period (c.1650-1950) that defined itself in relation to progress. This progress was "evidenced" by scientific discoveries, industrialisation and technological innovation, which presented previous epochs as uncivilised and obsolete by comparison. In addition to advancements in science and ...
Modernity
cultural evolution. modernity, the self-definition of a generation about its own technological innovation, governance, and socioeconomics. To participate in modernity was to conceive of one's society as engaging in organizational and knowledge advances that make one's immediate predecessors appear antiquated or, at least, surpassed.
Modernity and Modernization
Introduction. Modernity refers to a condition of social existence that is radically different to all past forms of human experience. Modernization refers to the transitional process of moving from "traditional" or "primitive" communities to modern societies. ... The first part of this essay investigates modernity by reference to ...
Habermas's theory of modernity
At some level, modernity designates a period (or a set of ideas closely associated with a period) with a beginning in time. Whether that period is now past, or still unfolding, and whether, if it is past, we should happily bid it farewell, was a much-debated question in the 1980s when The Theory of Communicative Action was published. (Happily, the period in which that was a pressing and (page ...
Modernity
Mitchell's introductory essay is a useful overview of epistemological issues attending the study of modernity, including the world-systems-infused notion that modernity is a product of global reticulations that in turn produced a sense of "self" in the West; thus the "West" would be a product of modernity, not vice versa.
Bridge Essay: The Emergence of Modernity
This chapter addresses these fundamental questions about a term, modernity, that has variously been understood as a historical period, a type of historical event, a mindset or an attitude, a relative description, and an absolute one. It reviews both the history of modernity (the thing that the word "modernity" might refer to), the history ...
Modernity (Chapter 8)
Summary. Within social theory, the term 'modernity' is most often used to refer to societies that are built on the principles of individual freedom and instrumental mastery.Furthermore, such societies are assumed to have emerged in Western Europe and North America from the late eighteenth century onwards.All debate notwithstanding, this has ...
Interpreting Modernity: Essays on the Work of Charles Taylor on ...
The contributors to this volume, all distinguished philosophers and social theorists in their own right, offer critical assessments of Taylor's writings. Taken together, they provide the reader with an unrivalled perspective on the full extent of Charles Taylor's contribution to modern philosophy. 978--228-00282-6.
Modernity and Modernism: Key Themes
Abstract. A whole tradition of cultural theory, stemming from Kant and early German Romanticism, suggests a perspective in which representing sensory experience through imagination and feeling is just as significant as the modern project for our sense of a distinctively modern orientation. Hence we examine modern selfhood, as subject of these ...
The Three Waves of Modernity
The Three Waves of Modernity. "The Three Waves of Modernity," Political Philosophy: Six Essays, ed. Hilail Gildin, Pegasus-Bobbs-Merrill, 1975. Excerpt: The crisis of modernity reveals itself in the fact, or consists in the fact, that modern western man no longer knows what he wants-that he no longer believes that he can know what is good and ...
Max Weber: Readings And Commentary On Modernity
Connects Weber's writings to contemporary issues through modern essays and editorial introductions. About the Author. Stephen Kalberg is Associate Professor of Sociology at Boston University and one of the world's leading Weber scholars.
How to Write an Essay Introduction
Table of contents. Step 1: Hook your reader. Step 2: Give background information. Step 3: Present your thesis statement. Step 4: Map your essay's structure. Step 5: Check and revise. More examples of essay introductions. Other interesting articles. Frequently asked questions about the essay introduction.
The Writer of Modern Life
Walter Benjamin's essays on the great French lyric poet Charles Baudelaire revolutionized not just the way we think about Baudelaire, but our understanding of modernity and modernism as well. In these essays, Benjamin challenges the image of Baudelaire as late-Romantic dreamer, and evokes instead the modern poet caught in a life-or-death struggle with the forces of the urban commodity ...
(PDF) THE CONCEPT OF MODERNITY: A BRIEF REVIEW
Department of Philosophy. Punjabi University, Patiala, India. Abstract: This paper explores the concepts of modernity as interpreted by classical theorists of modernity such as Karl Marx, Max ...
Modernity and Modernism
3.1 Introduction. Modernity and modernism are two very distinct phenomena that are interdependent on each other. They both share the common stem word "modern" which refers to: All things new and recent as opposed to old and antiquated things and practices. Anything which is in vogue and in fashion.
Theory of Modernity Essay
Theory of Modernity Essay. Theory of modernity is based on the notion of social progress, it implies that all of society, in whatever era they exist and in what region or were located, are involved in a single, all-consuming, the universal process of the ascent of human society from savagery to civilization. Culture of modernity is defining the ...
Is Modernity Positive or Negative?
The objective of this paper is to look into modernity and establish whether modernity is positive or negative. Modernity is a term used to denote cultural variance relative to time. To be modern, often means that an individual or something is up to standards as per current transformations and changes. People tend to embrace modernity because ...
Max Weber
Connects Weber's writings to contemporary issues through modern essays and editorial introductions. Reviews "Having established himself as a leading Weber scholar and translator, Stephen Kalberg shows that he is an editor of vision and sensibility. He presents the full range of Weber's writing in a way that indicates Weber's grasp of all ...
How to Write an Essay Introduction (with Examples)
Here are the key takeaways for how to write essay introduction: 3. Hook the Reader: Start with an engaging hook to grab the reader's attention. This could be a compelling question, a surprising fact, a relevant quote, or an anecdote. Provide Background: Give a brief overview of the topic, setting the context and stage for the discussion.
Modernity essay esps
Therefore, this essay sets to discuss how Germany and the UK embarked on the path of modernisation and evaluate its outcomes. Firstly, a debate on the terminology of modernity must take place, in order to understand its relevance as a concept in line with modernisation.
The Modern Essay in Brazil
We analyze the construction of the modern essay in Brazil, inaugurated by the so-called 1930s generation: Gilberto Freyre's Casa-grande e senzala, Caio Prado Júnior's Evolução política do Brasil, and Sérgio Buarque de Holanda's Raízes do Brasil. Based on the classic theoretical references on the essay, we approach the modern Brazilian essay under three aspects. First, its context ...
The Modern Essay Critical Essays
Essays and criticism on The Modern Essay - Critical Essays. ... "The Modern Essay - Introduction." Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, edited by Jennifer Gariepy, Vol. 58. Gale Cengage, 1995, 22 ...
The Crackdown on Student Protesters
The Crackdown on Student Protesters. Columbia University is at the center of a growing showdown over the war in Gaza and the limits of free speech. April 25, 2024, 6:00 a.m. ET. Share full article ...

Essay on Modernity

100 Words Essay on Modernity

Impact of Modernity

Modernity and Culture

Modernity: A Double-Edged Sword

250 Words Essay on Modernity

Characteristics of Modernity

Implications of Modernity

Challenges of Modernity

500 Words Essay on Modernity

Modernity and its Characteristics

The Role of Industrialization and Capitalism

Secularization and Rationalization

Modernity and the Nation-State

Conclusion: The Continuing Evolution of Modernity

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Article contents

Introduction

Sociology and the Modern Subject

Order, Anomie, and Alienation

Knowledge Production and the Modern Subject

Rationality and Freedom

Modernization

Explorations of Modernization

Political Economy Critiques of “Modernization”

The Anthropological Critique of Modernization

Acknowledgments

5 (page 62) p. 62 Habermas's theory of modernity

Signed in as

Personal account

Institutional access

IP based access

Sign in through your institution

Sign in with a library card

Society Members

Sign in through society site

Sign in using a personal account

Viewing your signed in accounts

Signed in but can't access content

This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Anthropology

How to Subscribe

In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Modernity

Related Articles Expand or collapse the "related articles" section about

Other Subject Areas

Modernity by Brian Silverstein LAST REVIEWED: 30 March 2017 LAST MODIFIED: 30 March 2017 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199766567-0167

Leo Strauss

Theory of Modernity Essay

The Enlightenment Dbq

French Revolution Dbq Essay

Social Structure Of France During The French Revolution Essay

Voltaire's Affect on Modern Western Society Essay

To What Extent Was the Enlightenment the Cause of the French Revolution

French Revolution Dbq

The French Revolution And The Reign Of Terror

Was the French Revolution Successful? Essay

The Three Estates and Grievances Essay

Similarities And Similarities Between The American And French Revolution

The French Revolution: A Major Turning Point In European History

Origins Of The Twin Revolutions

Essay about Causes of the French Revolution

Sociology Emile Durkheim and Max Weber

Analysis Of The Movie 'Modernity'

Related Topics

Is Modernity Positive or Negative? Essay

How to Write an Essay Introduction (with Examples)

Table of Contents

Literary Analysis Essay Introduction Example

Examples of essay introduction

Argumentative Essay Introduction Example:

Expository Essay Introduction Example

Related Reads:

Similarity Checks: The Author’s Guide to Plagiarism and Responsible Writing

The Modern Essay in Brazil

Cite this article

Access this article

Similar content being viewed by others

The Sociological Invention of Brazil: Essays and the Social Sciences

Reviewing a Genre

Heinrich Heine and Marx As Essayists: On the Genesis and the Function of the Critic-Intellectuals

How to Write an Essay Introduction (with Examples)  