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In recent decades, the notion that modernity is now in a new phase of its existence has become increasingly prevalent. Using adjectives such as ‘late’, ‘hyper’, ‘high’ and ‘second’ to qualify their understanding of ‘modernity’, certain – mainly European – social theorists argue that modern society is now characterized by a fundamental radicalization of the processes and structures by which it has traditionally been defined (Bauman, 2005; Beck, 1992; Giddens, 1990). Unlike postmodern theorists, however, those advocating the notion of late or second modernity argue that while contemporary society is different in degree from what has gone before, it is not different in kind. Contemporary society is not different in kind from what has gone before because the same kinds of social processes which gave rise to modernity (urban-industrialization, structural differentiation, social plurali­zation etc.) continue to exist. At the same time, however, and for a variety of reasons, these processes have assumed an intensity which magni­fies both the scale and rapidity of their impact upon the structural fabric and social make-up of modern society.

An example often cited by those advocating a late- or second-modernity is the extent to which modern processes of societal integration have been radicalized over the course of the last few decades (Beck, Giddens and Lash, 1994). On the one hand, this radicalization involves the intensification of late-modern integrative processes occurring at a national level. The most influential of such developments is perhaps the ‘marketization’ of contemporary society engendered by late-capitalist emphases upon economically driven modes of existence. Encompassing far more than financial transactions and commercial activities, the marketization of late modern society impacts upon all walks of life. Through their valorization of competition and inculcation of acquisitive and consumerist lifestyles, the marketizing forces of late modernity engender the progressive commodification of contemporary society as a whole. On the other hand, the radicalization of integrative processes occurs at an unprecedented international level. While the rise of modern society was in many ways predicated on the growth of international exchange – not least in respect of trade and workforce migration – the recent intensification of transnational integration is such that a new term (‘globalization’) has been adopted to signal the hyper-modern step change in integrative dynamics. The technological advances of the late-modern period (e.g. passenger aircraft, satellite technology, the internet) enable the rapid and large-scale circulation of material goods, people, information, tastes, values and beliefs. Exemplified by the financial crisis of 2008 and subsequent global slump, such is the nature of this worldwide circulation that domestic structures and social dynamics are now inextricably interwoven within a highly integrated network of international processes and flows.