What is the difference between modernity and postmodernity?

One Answer

1. First about the terms: in the second half of the 20th century, there were some fundamental changes in Western capitalist society that required a new descriptive language/terminology. As a result, the concepts of “post-industrial society”, “network society”, “postmodern”, etc.appeared, and it was precisely about the new state of society that was mentioned: J. F. Lyotard's famous book was called “The State of Postmodernism”. Postmodernism as a cultural process was also discussed separately, but this is a separate topic.

   Postmodernism became widely popular, but already in the 70s and 80s, the term itself was criticized as irrelevant: it suggests that modernity has not yet exhausted its resource, so we live in a late / fluid / high modernity, etc., while no one disputed the seriousness of changes in the socio-economic way of life, science and cultural life.

   The changes themselves were reduced to:

   1. Transition of the economy from industrial to service-oriented. Even Marxists have noticed that it is not the workers who are being exploited, but the white-collar workers.

   2) The associated transition to a consumer economy and the emergence of a consumer society.

   3) Liberalization of private life: the disintegration of large and small social groups and the final appearance of the individual. The gradual death of old classes and the emergence of new ones (for example, the precariat), a society of equal opportunities (this eventually led to the equalization of gender rights, same-sex marriage, etc.)�

   4) Blurring or destroying “binary oppositions” (right/wrong, good/bad, etc.). What Beck called the dominance of expert opinion over scientific opinion.

   And many,many more things.

   The term “postmodern” is still used in social theory, but for example, the British are more fond of reflective modernity.

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