Reflexive modernization' and other mythical realities

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2401547
AutoresVassos Argyrou (University of Hull, autor correspondente)
Ano2003
Volume3
Fascículo1
Páginas27-41
Data de publicação2003-03-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAnthropological Theory (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1463-4996 • E-ISSN: 1741-2641
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1463499603003001750
OpenAlexW2038622063
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas10
Referências citadas23

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