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Sociology vocabulary · Social Change and Globalisation

Modernity

Meaning in sociology, with examples

/mɒˈdɜːnəti/nounCommon term

In sociology, modernity means: The type of society that emerged in Europe from around the eighteenth century, marked by industrialisation, urbanisation, the nation-state, science and a belief in progress.

In Turkish: modernite, modernlik

How it is used

The classical sociologists Marx, Durkheim and Weber were all trying to explain modernity. Later debates use terms such as late modernity (Giddens), liquid modernity (Bauman), reflexive modernity and postmodernity. Do not confuse it with modernism, an artistic movement.

Example sentences

  1. Bauman used the term liquid modernity to describe a world of constant change and insecurity.

  2. The course asks how sociology itself was a product of modernity.

Common collocations

  • late modernity
  • liquid modernity
  • modernity and tradition
  • transition to modernity
  • industrialisationThe shift from an economy based mainly on farming and handcraft to one based on factories, machines and mass production, with deep effects on work, family and where people live.
  • rationalisationThe historical process, described by Weber, in which tradition, emotion and magic give way to calculation, efficiency, rules and scientific reasoning in more and more areas of life.
  • secularisationThe process by which religion loses social influence, so that religious institutions, beliefs and practices play a smaller role in public life and in individual lives.
  • globalisationThe growing interconnection of the world's economies, cultures and populations through trade, investment, migration, travel, media and digital communication.

More terms: Social Change and Globalisation

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