Second modern
The term Second Modern was coined by Heinrich Klotz in the early 1990s for contemporary art and architecture after the alleged collapse of a so-called old order of the First Modern .
The term was used by the German sociologist Ulrich Beck for his theses of a world that has changed both economically and socially and politically in the course of globalization .
First modernity
The (first) modern age is considered to be the period from the Enlightenment , especially industrialization and the bureaucratization that went along with it . It began in the 18th century, and it was during this time that civil society and the nation-state developed . It was classically described by sociologists such as Max Weber ( Economy and Society , 1922) and Ferdinand Tönnies ( Spirit of the Modern Era , 1935).
Second modern
The theory of the second modernity states that a radicalization of modernity - including u. a. Autonomy of the individual , rationalization and Fordism fall - exist. Beck also uses the term risk society. The second modern, which began in the middle / end of the 20th century, encompasses the process of the now almost omnipresent globalization with precarious working conditions and the development of a world society . The second modern can be seen as a cultural reaction to the digital revolution .
An essential distinguishing feature between the first and second modernity is the irreversibility of the resulting “globality”. The above-mentioned new principles, which are among other things phenomena of globalization, increasingly came into conflict with the institutions of the first modern age, e.g. B. with the nation state. In the course of this development, the transnational corporations receive increasing power, whereas the power of the nation-states continues to decrease in relation to this, i.e. the nation- state loses its sovereignty . This brings with it an increase in problems that can be observed almost everywhere today.
Examples of this are the conflicts between real and virtual taxpayers , the reduction in the welfare state coupled with the increase in social inequality , the decline in social integration and the difficult enforcement of national legal provisions.
The core question of the Second Modern Age is the search for solutions to the challenges arising from globalization, flexibility , increasing unemployment , environmental pollution and the erosion of functioning political, social and cultural systems.
The exact definition of the Second Modern Age is still vague and is under development. It also depends on whether it is a present and still relatively new process that requires further studies, or whether its central features are not already early modern (globalization) and the criticism was essentially already 200 years ago e.g. B. has been practiced in Romanticism and in German idealistic philosophy .
With his remarks, Ulrich Beck wants to sharpen the view for something new and the problems associated with it. The novelty that is emerging in western, capitalist society is described by several other sociologists - e. B. by Daniel Bell and Anthony Giddens . Characteristic catchphrases are, for example , the “ new complexity ” coined by Jürgen Habermas , the term “ risk society ” used by Ulrich Beck and the expression flexible person , which comes from Richard Sennett . Ulrich Beck and the authors of Edition Zwei Moderne hope that people will succeed in shaping their future sensibly by developing approaches for improvement on the basis of an analysis of current (global) problems.
The term “second modern” has so far not caught on in the social sciences. The phenomena contained therein are, however, as described above, similarly characterized by many sociologists. Others and many economists are more positive about the effects of globalization.
See also
literature
- Ulrich Beck : The age of side effects and the politicization of modernity. In: ders., Anthony Giddens , Scott Lash (Ed.): Reflexive Modernisierung. A controversy. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt a. M. 1996, pp. 19-112, ISBN 3-518-11705-X .
Individual evidence
- ^ Ulrich Beck: Risk Society . Frankfurt am Main 1986.