Forms of Modernity

Course content

This course aims to introduce and discuss changing conceptions of modernity in social and political theory from the mid-19th / early 20th to the early 21st century. The mediating dynamic of change between the conceptions of “early” and “late” modernity is described through changes in the political-economic organization of capitalism. This can be summed up as the transformation of nationally organized capitalism towards a disorganized, global capitalism. In the “new” sociology of the late-modern societies it is argued that contemporary societies take new forms and undergo new experiences as they are exposed to global uncertainties and complexity arising from the decomposition of “organized capitalism.” This course is designed with the expectation that the students will have a comprehensive understanding of changing forms of modernity from its inception to its novel forms in contemporary times.