Modernity, Post-Modernity and Late Modernity

Historical Period

Time Period

Key Features of Society

Modernity

1650 to 1950 (ish)

• Clear social structure (class/ gender)

• The nuclear family

• Jobs for life

• Nation States and Politics

• Trust in Science

• A belief in ‘progress’

Post and Late Modernity (the Same)

1980 (ish) to the present day

• Globalisation

• Uncertainty

• Consumerism

• More Individual Freedom

• More Diversity

• The media and Hyper-reality

Theory

Society

The Individual

Knowledge

Examples

Modernism

Structured, institutions important stable, ordered,

Individual shaped by society

Objective knowledge is possible, it can lead to progress

Marxism

Post-Modernism

Institutions less powerful, media and consmer culture all important

Individual free to construct their own identity

Objective knowledge is not possible, it just leads to oppression

Lyotard

Late Modernism

Global institutions and abstract systems both constrain and empower individuals

The Individual has no choice but to construct their identity

Knowledge is still useful to help steer late-modernity, but it is fraught with uncertainties

Giddens