Hall, Held, McLellan - Elements of Modernity

2 MODERNITY AND ITS FUTURES
Hall, Stuart, David Held, and Gregor McLennan. 1992. "Introduction." Pp. 1-11 in
Modernity and Its Futures, edited
the main tasksby
of S.
theHall, D. Held,
chapters and T. McGrew.
is to introduce UK: Polity
debates: debates about the
Press. likely directions, central dimensions and proper naming of these
changes; debates about whether the future of modernity will sustain the
Enlightenment promise of greater understanding and mastery of nature,
the progress of reason in human affairs, and a steady, sustainable
development in the standard and quality of life for the world's
populations; debates about whether there is any meaningful future for
specific classical social theories (such as liberalism or Marxism); and
debates about the very role and possibility of social science today.
A RESUME OF SOME EARLIER REFLECTIONS
In the previous volumes of this series, a number of elements of

modernity have been explored and questioned. These have formed a set
of orientation points or recurrent themes to which our examination of
modern societies has frequently returned. It may be useful briefly to
summarize the main elements here, before addressing the issue of how
far the shape and character of 'modernity' remain intact as we approach
the end of the twentieth century. We have examined the following
propositions:
1 'Modernity' is that distinct and unique form of social life which

characterizes modern societies. Modern societies began to emerge in
Europe from about the fifteenth century, but modernity in the sense
used here could hardly be said to exist in any developed form until the
idea of 'the modern' was given a decisive formulation in the discourses
of the Enlightenment in the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth
century, modernity became identilled with industrialism and the
sweeping social, economic and cultural changes associated with it. In
the twentieth century, several non-European societies -for example,
Australasia and Japan -joined the company of advanced industrial
societies. Modernity became a progressively global phenomenon.
2 Modernity has had a long and complex historical evolution. It was
constituted by the articulation of a number of different historical
processes, working together in unique historical circumstances. These
processes were the political (the rise of the secular state and polity), the
economic (the global capitalist economy), the social (formation of
classes and an advanced sexual and social division of labour), and the
cultural (the transition from a religious to a secular culture). Modernity,
one might say, is the sum of these different forces and processes; no
single 'master process' was sufficient to produce it.
3 Modernity developed at the intersection of national and
international conditions and processes. It was shaped by both 'internal'
and 'external' forces. The West forged its identity and interests in
relation to endogenous developments in Europe and America, and
through relations of unequal exchange (material and cultural) with 'the
Rest'- the frequently excluded, conquered, colonized and exploited
'other'.
INTRODUCTION 3
bout the 4 Modernity can be characterized by a cluster of institutions, each with

e its own pattern of change and development. Among these we would
:tain the include: the nation-state and an international system of states; a
nature, dynamic and e?'pansionist capitalist economic order based on private
e property; industrialism; the growth of large-scale administrative and
bureaucratic systems of social organization and regulation; the
rre for dominance of secular, materialist, rationalist and individualist cultural
;and values; and the formal separation of the 'private' from the 'public'.
ty. 5 Although modern capitalism was from the beginning an
international affair, capitalist market relations have been organized on
an increasingly global scale. Capitalist relations continue to provide
modernity with its economic dynamic for growth and expansion,
though forms of mass production and consumption are changing.
ed a set Industrial capitalism has characteristically involved striking patterns of
.on of social inequality: in particular, distinctive class relations, based on

those who own and control the means of production and those who
v to
>f how only have their labouring power to sell. These social divisions have
persisted over time, while becoming more complicated as a result of the
>proach
emergence of new social strata and occupational groupings. Modernity
tg
also produced distinctive social patterns of gender and racial division,
as well as other social divisions which intersect with, but are not
ch reducible to, class. This has given rise to complex patterns of
:J in asymmetrical life-chances, both within nation-states and between them.
1se
6 Modern societies are increasingly characterized by their complexity:
1til the
by the proliferation of consumer products and by a variety of lifestyles.
ourses
The hold of tradition has weakened in favour of individual choice and
creating one's own life project; the individual is increasingly aware of
the possibility of constructing new identities. Emphasis on personal life
it. In
and on the spheres of intimacy has weakened the bormdaries between
1ple,
the public and private. Nevertheless, this greater cultural pluralism and
rial
individuation has been accompanied by a growth of organizations (from
hospitals to schools) seeking greater regulation and surveillance of
was social life.
7 Power is a constitutive dimension of all modern social relations; and
"hese
social struggles -between classes, social movements and other groups
y), the
-are 'inscribed' into the organization of society as well as the
structures and policies of the state. Modern states are large,
:l the
interventionist, administratively bureaucratic and complex systems of
ernity,
power sui generis, which intervene to organize large areas of social life.
no
Liberal democracy in its contemporary form is the prevailing type of
political regime in the industrial societies. It is partly the result of the
struggles between different social groupings and interests, and partly the
ernal' result of opportunities and constraints created by 'power politics' and
economic competition in national and international arenas. Socialism,
an alternative to the predominantly capitalist path to modernity,
1 'the developed historically into a number of different forms. State socialism,
.ted the comprehensive attempt to substitute central planning for the market
and the state for the autonomous associations of civil society, is nearly
everywhere on the retreat. Social democracy, the attempt to regulate the
4 MODERNITY AND ITS FUTURES I�
market and social organizations in the name of greater social justice and tJ
welfare, continues to enjoy widespread support, especially in parts of d
Europe. Yet, it is also an intensively contested project which has had tl
both its aims and strategies questioned. tJ
8 Globalization, a process reaching back to the earliest stages of
a
modernity, continues to shape and reshape politics, economics and
n
culture, at an accelerated pace and scale. The extension of globalizing
processes, operating through a variety of institutional dimensions [
(technological, organizational, administrative, cultural and legal), and rl
their increased intensification within these spheres, creates new forms il
and limits within 'modernity' as a distinctive form of life. e
s
This volume seeks to explore these propositions further while also
a
asking whether developments are leading toward an intensification and
b
acceleration of the pace and scope of modernity, broadly along the lines
c
sketched above, or whether they are producing an altogether altered or
i:
new constellation of political, economic, social and cultural life. In
�
pursuing these issues, we are primarily concerned, it should be stressed,
d
to pose questions about modernity and its possible futures, rather than
i'
to deliver (or encourage) snap judgements, as some versions of each
pole in the debates tend to do. At the same time, we are convinced that
the very idea of what lies at the edge of, and beyond, modernity changes 1
the experience of living in the modern world and sets an exciting and �
powerful agenda for social theory and research. We also feel that, a
complicated as the exchanges about the shape of the future often (
become, they should not be the exclusive property of established E
academics. Part of the great attraction of the issues confronted here is s
that they are not only of cerebral interest: they touch fundamentally on
the changing identities of a great many people today, and affect in key I
ways their everyday experience of 'being-in-the-world'. f
It is, therefore, important that the question of post-modernity be �
t
accessibly presented and engaged at a number of different levels of
familiarity and scholarship. The topics we handle certainly have the
sharp tang of the contemporary about them, but they are not going to be
definitively resolved for some time to come, and this is another reason
for ensuring that the driving concepts and evidential support for
generalizations about modernity's future are addressed in an open and
critical manner. Let us now begin to address these issues by putting
aside for the moment the business of the precise label that we may wish
to stick on the 'new times' that we confront, and asking the question:
what is going on in the social world of the 1990s?
THE STRUCTURE OF THE VOLUME
In the political sphere, a number of earthquakes have shaken both social

reality and social thinking in recent years. Most obviously, the collapse
of communism in the USSR and Eastern Europe, from the late 1980s,
has constituted a remarkable set of changes which few, if any, fully
anticipated. These changes have set in motion, not only wide-ranging

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2 MODERNITY AND ITS FUTURES

A RESUME OF SOME EARLIER REFLECTIONS

In the previous volumes of this series, a number of elements of

1 'Modernity' is that distinct and unique form of social life which

bout the 4 Modernity can be characterized by a cluster of institutions, each with

ed a set Industrial capitalism has characteristically involved striking patterns of

.on of social inequality: in particular, distinctive class relations, based on

THE STRUCTURE OF THE VOLUME

In the political sphere, a number of earthquakes have shaken both social

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