Reflexive Modernization - by Ulrich Beck & Anthony Giddens & Scott Lash (Paperback)

About the Book

Three prominent social thinkers discuss how modern society is undercutting its formations of class, stratum, occupations, sex roles, the nuclear family, and more. Reflexive modernization, or the way one kind of modernization undercuts and changes another, has wide ranging implications for contemporary social and cultural theory, as this provocative book demonstrates.

Book Synopsis

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. Beck 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 the 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 analyzed.

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.

From the Back Cover

"Each of these essays--as well as the replies and critiques at the end of the book--is exemplary, original, and thoughtful, showing the vital state of social theory in coming to terms with the conditions of late modernity."--Choice

Review Quotes

"Each of these essays--as well as the replies and critiques at the end of the book--is exemplary, original, and thoughtful, showing the vital state of social theory in coming to terms with the conditions of late modernity."--Choice

About the Author

Ulrich Beck is Professor of Sociology at the University of Munich. Anthony Giddens is Professor of Sociology at the University of Cambridge. Scott Lash is Professor of Sociology at the University of Lancaster.