The argument of this work is that, rather than a post-modern world, the end
of the 20th century should be described as a period of "high modernity", which
radicalizes prior trends. An account of the nature of modernity, it analyzes
the intersections between trust mechanisms and risk profiles.In this major theoretical statement, the author offers a new and
provocative interpretation of the institutional transformations associated with
modernity. We do not as yet, he argues, live in a post-modern world. Rather the
distinctive characteristics of our major social institutions in the closing
period of the twentieth century express the emergence of a period of 'high
modernity,' in which prior trends are radicalised rather than undermined. A
post-modern social universe may eventually come into being, but this as yet
lies 'on the other side' of the forms of social and cultural organization which
currently dominate world history.In developing an account of the nature of
modernity, Giddens concentrates upon analyzing the intersections between trust
and risk, and security and danger, in the modern world. Both the trust
mechanisms associated with modernity and the distinctive 'risk profile' it
produces, he argues, are distinctively different from those characteristic of
pre-modern social orders. This book build upon the author's previous
theoretical writings, and will be of fundamental interest to anyone concerned
with Gidden's overall project.; However, the work covers issues which the author has not previously
analyzed and extends the scope of his work into areas of pressing practical
concern. This book will be essential reading for second year undergraduates and
above in sociology, politics, philosophy, and cultural studies.
