Negotiating the 'Double Bind

Heller's Theory of Modernity

Bibliographic Data

ID2397593
AuthorsJohn Grumley (0000-0001-5308-2546, The University of Sydney, corresponding author)
Year2000
Volume3
Issue4
Pages429-447
Publication date2000-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEuropean Journal of Social Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1368-4310 • E-ISSN: 1461-7137
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/13684310022224886
OpenAlexW2128535413
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited8

Agnes Heller was one of the first critical theorists to turn her attention to a contemporary theory of modernity. Yet her many writings on this topic remained fragments until the publication of her A Theory of Modernity (1999). This article focuses on the structural elements of this account. It traces the evolution of Heller's ideas in regard to logics, dynamic and social arrangement of modernity. It explains how these fit into her own development towards the standpoint she describes as postmodern resignation and her notions of the 'double bind' and 'pendulum of modernity'. It argues that while Heller has modified her conception of the multiple logics of modernity to keep faith with a critical brief and an open-ended vision, some theoretical tensions remain. In particular, it explores the idea of modernity as a 'steamroller' in conjunction with the question of its survival. It also questions whether Heller's emphatic normative vision of cultural modernity can easily be reconciled with the empirical trends of globalization that promise an increasing diversity of modernities

Aesthetics · Critical theory · Epistemology · Modernity · Negotiation · Normative · Postmodernism · Postmodernity · Social science · Sociology · Critical Theory and Philosophy · Hannah Arendt's Political Philosophy · Philosophy · Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, and Politics

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