modernity and post-modernity

the nation state

each country developed a political unit that had its own sovereignty. within each boundary, the population would usually share a common language and culture

capitalism

the economic system of the modernist era. it’s the job of the state to regulate the capitalist system however its nature is to bring about inequality within society

growth of science and rationalism

the dominance of religious belief in the traditional societies wanes and is replaced by the new dominant belief system

individualism

although social class, gender and ethnicity still classify people into set groups, there is generally more personal freedom that in traditional societies

postmodernism

postmodernists argue that things have changed from the modernist era mainly due to globalisation

they argue that all countries are now connected and therefore the separate nation states are no longer significant in the way they used to be

decline of the nation state

each nation state no longer has total autonomy as several global political organisations exist e.g. the UN and EU

therefore postmodernists argue that due to such changes, modernist no longer exists and we need new theories such as postmodernism to explain society

Baudrillard

argues that for some individuals their only interaction with the outside world is through social media which shapes the way they think about the world

death of the social

as a result of social media, the traditional need for a sense of belonging to a community has become redundant and no longer relevant

Baudrillard calls this the death of the social