Reflexive modernization' and other mythical realities

Bibliographic Data

ID2401547
AuthorsVassos Argyrou (University of Hull, corresponding author)
Year2003
Volume3
Issue1
Pages27-41
Publication date2003-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnthropological Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1463-4996 • E-ISSN: 1741-2641
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1463499603003001750
OpenAlexW2038622063
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited23

This article explores the theory of `reflexive modernization' which is primarily associated with the names of Anthony Giddens and Ulrich Beck. It examines the pressures under which the re-definition of modernity as `pure' reflexivity emerged and suggests that among these, poststructuralism has been the most fundamental. It also examines how the theory, by refashioning modernity, strives to maintain western identity over and above its other, the traditional, as well as to retain the privileges that this identity bestows. The article concludes by arguing that the theory constructs a mythical reality which, however, cannot be taken seriously even as a myth. Its narrators are unaware of what their story does but, unlike the narrators of native myths, they utterly contradict themselves by claiming to be guided by `wholesale' reflexivity

Aesthetics · Critical theory · Epistemology · Identity (music · Late modernity · Modernity · Modernization theory · Mythology · Political science · Reflexivity · Social science · Sociology · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law · Philosophy · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Political Economy and Marxism