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There are a number of features of modernity some of the salient features are discussed as follows:
Time-space separation:
With modernisation, time was standardised. In large part, social interaction does not take place at the same time and in the same place.
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Relationships with those who are physically absent and increasingly distant become more and more likely. New technological measures also call for expansion of our space which means that we can be in the same space though not necessarily in the same locale. The modern rational organisation, for example, has been able to connect the local and the global in new ways. A modern company can function because it has been possible to break the time-space connection.
Disembedding of social systems:
Earlier the institutions and actions of society were embedded in the local community. The condition has changed because social relations are lifted out of the local interaction context by disembedding mechanisms. Giddens distinguishes between two types of disembedding mechanisms which contribute to the development of modern institutions: (i)-symbolic tokens; and (ii) expert systems. Together these are called abstract systems. Money is an example of a symbolic token.
It places time in a bracket as it functions as a means of credit. It represents a value that can be later used to purchase new goods. The standardised value allows transactions to be carried out without actually meeting, thus fracturing the notion of space. New patterns of interaction are created across time and space.
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Expert systems are defined as, “systems of technical accomplishment or professional expertise that organise large areas of the material and social environments in which we live today”. The most obvious expert systems involve professionals like lawyers and physicians.
Consider the following example. In travel by bus one enters a large network of expert systems including the construction of the bus, roads and the traffic control system. The bus can be taken without possessing knowledge of how these systems are constructed. One only needs the money for the ticket (another expert system). The expert systems also help to move social relations from one given context to another. Such a disembedding mechanism requires a time-space separation.
Reflexivity of Modern society:
According to Giddens, reflexivity, the third contributing factor in society’s profound process of transformation, is of two forms. The first is a general feature of all human action. The second type of reflexivity is unique to modernity. Modern society is experiencing reflexivity at both the institutional and personal levels, and this is decisive for the production and change of modern systems and modern forms of social organisation. Giddens defines reflexivity as institutions’ and individuals’ regular and constant use of knowledge as the conditions for society’s organisation and change.
The firm undertakes market surveys in order to establish sales strategies; the state conducts censuses in order to establish the tax base. This increased reflexivity is made possible by the development of the network of mass communication. With an expansion of the time-space dimension, the social practices are constantly investigated and changed on the basis of newly acquired information. Today we reflect on tradition and act in accordance with it only if it can be legitimised via reflexivity.
Giddens states that modernity’s culture of incessant reflexivity creates a post-traditional social world. As modernity spreads throughout the globe, it encourages the rise of expert, abstract systems of knowledge, represented by the social and natural sciences. These expert systems encourage constant change and reflexivity, which separates time and space from their particular context, re-embedding them in new ones. He also views new social movements, centred on a new life politics, as integral to the texture of modern life. He rejects the claim of surpassed modernity and rejects most, if not all, tenets associated with postmodernism.