Modernity and Postmodernity

Overview and Key Terms

The bedrocks of modernity are to be found in the processes and ideologies encapsulated in scientific rationality, specialization and individualism, and commodification. A fundamental idea deeply embedded within the ideals and systems of modernity is that of social and cultural progress. Conversely, postmodernity is principally defined by questioning the modern values and assumptions of progress, and questioning the values of scientific and economic rationality. Postmodernity also places an emphasis on matters of aesthetics and style in cultural life and on the importance of leisure and consumption in forming people's identities.

It is helpful to begin thinking about the different definitional components of modernity and postmodernity by highlighting the possible different uses of both terms:

• 1.
  Modernity/postmodernity refers to the stage or epoch of social, cultural, and economic development. Sometimes writers use the terms modern era or postmodern era, which are equivalent concepts. The key idea in this use of both terms is that each represents a significant and decisive shift in the basis of social change and evolution that represents a break with the previous era.
• 2.
  Modernism/postmodernism refers to the artistic, aesthetic, philosophical, and stylistic facets of these epochs. For example, modernism is associated with particular canons and trends in art, philosophy, literature, and architecture, as is postmodernism.
• 3.
  Modernization/postmodernization refers to the processes of social change associated with each of these epochs, driving the transition from traditional to modern and then postmodern societies.

Basic Features

Before proceeding to explore each epoch and its key processes in greater detail, it is helpful to list some of the essential qualities and features of modernity and postmodernity. Modernity is informed by the belief that scientific rationality and rational thought are essential and desirable features of social advancement. This is a reaction to earlier forms of traditional or premodern social authority formed around religion and superstition and associated with forager-tribal societies and subsistence economic production. Modernity places great emphasis on the idea of the sanctity of the individual's political and social rights, and values the individual as an essential unit of modern life whose status is protected by the modern nation-state. The individual is seen as tied to others in the modern world through various types of social and economic contracts that are often implicit and unspoken dimensions of social belonging. At its heart, modernity is associated with the idea of progress, and a belief in the capacity of science and rational systems of management, classification, and ordering to form the cornerstones of such progress. Modernity is also defined by a tendency toward economic expansion based on principles of economic specialization and the continued global expansion of capitalist systems of production. The basis of modernity is a system of mass production and the growth of a consumer society based on mass consumption of durables frequently centered on the home, such as motorcars, washing machines, or refrigerators.

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