Читать книгу Sociology - Anthony Giddens - Страница 210

In The Consequences of Modernity (1991b), Giddens outlined his view that the global spread of modernity tends to produce a ‘runaway world’ in which, it appears, no one and no government is in overall control. While Marx used the image of a monster to describe capitalist modernity, Giddens (ibid.: 139) likens it to riding on board a large truck:

I suggest we should substitute that of the juggernaut – a runaway engine of enormous power, which, collectively as human beings, we can drive to some extent but which also threatens to rush out of our control and which could rend itself asunder. The juggernaut crushes those who resist it, and while it sometimes seems to have a steady path, there are times when it veers away erratically in directions we cannot foresee. The ride is by no means unpleasant or unrewarding; it can often be exhilarating and charged with hopeful anticipation. But, as long as the institutions of modernity endure, we shall never be able to control completely either the path or the pace of the journey.

The globalizing form of modernity is marked by new uncertainties, risks and changes to people’s trust in others and social institutions. In a world of rapid change, traditional forms of trust are dissolved. Our trust in other people used to be based in local communities, but in globalized societies our lives are influenced by people we never meet or know, who may live on the far side of the world from us. Such impersonal relationships mean we are pushed to ‘trust’ or have confidence in ‘abstract systems’, such as food production, environmental regulation agencies or international banking systems. In this way, trust and risk are closely bound together. Trust in authorities is necessary if we are to confront the risks around us and react to them in an effective way. However, this type of trust is not habitually given but is the subject of reflection and revision.

When societies were more reliant on knowledge gained from custom and tradition, people could follow established ways of doing things without much reflection. For modern people, aspects of life that earlier generations were able to take for granted become matters of open decision-making, producing what Giddens calls ‘reflexivity’ – the continuous reflection on our everyday actions and the re-formation of these in the light of new knowledge. For example, whether to marry (or divorce) is a very personal decision, which may take account of the advice of family and friends. But official statistics and sociological research on marriage and divorce also filter into social life, becoming widely known and shared, thus becoming part of an individual’s decision-making.

For Giddens, these characteristic features point to the conclusion that global modernity is a form of social life that is discontinuous with previous ones. In many ways, the globalization of modernity marks not the end of modern societies or a movement beyond them (as in postmodernism – see chapter 3) but a new stage of ‘late’ or ‘high’ modernity which takes the tendencies embedded within modern life into a more far-reaching global phase.