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Reflexive Modernization
Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order
Ulrich Beck (Author), Anthony Giddens (Author), Scott Lash (Author)
9780745612782, Polity Press
Paperback / softback, published 25 September 1994
240 pages
22.8 x 15.4 x 1.8 cm, 0.369 kg
"Reflexive Modernization is stimulating and imaginative ... all the authors raise important issues. Giddens provides a much-needed sociological discussion of the nature of tradition, which should provoke debate. Lash's contribution is in some ways the most helpful, given his direct engagement with his co-authors and his relation of theory to a variety of evidence." Radical Philosophy "This is an attractive an original collection with much to commend ... the Giddens essay ... is elegant, smoothly written and carries lightly a vast amount of insight ... this is Giddens at his most mature and very best and explains his dominance in contemporary socialogical theory." British Journal of Sociology
The theme of reflexivity has come to be central to social analysis. In this book three prominent social thinkers discuss the implications of "reflexive modernization" for social and cultural theory today. Ulrich Beck's vision of the "risk society" has already become extraordinarily influential. He offers a new elaboration of his basic ideas, connecting reflexive modernization with new issues to do with the state and political organization. Giddens offers an in-depth examination of the connections between "institutional reflexivity" and the de-traditionalizing of the modern world. We are entering, he argues, a phase of the development of a global society. A 'global society' is not a world society, but one with universalizing tendencies. Lash develops the theme of reflexive modernization in relation to aesthetics and the interpretation of culture. In this domain, he suggests, we need to look again at the conventional theories of postmodernism; "aesthetic modernization" has distinctive qualities that need to be uncovered and analysed. In the concluding sections of the book, the three authors offer critical appraisals of each other's viewpoints, providing a synthetic conclusion to the work as a whole.
Preface. 1. The Reinvention of Politics: . Towards a Theory of Reflexive Modernization: Ulrich Beck. 2. Living in a Post-Traditional Society: . Anthony Giddens. 3. Reflexivity and its Doubles:. Structure, Aesthetics, Community: Scott Lash. 4. Replies and Critiques:. Ulrich Beck, Anthony Giddens, Scott Lash. Index.
Subject Areas: Sociology & anthropology [JH]
