Knowra Modernity Modernity Modernity is the social, cultural, and institutional condition associated with modern societies, marked by industrialization, secularization, urban life, and confidence in human progress.
Industrialization : The transformation of production and work through mechanized factories, new energy sources, and large-scale manufacturing. Factory production and wage labor reorganized economies and everyday life.
Scientific Revolution : A period of major changes in European natural philosophy and science, especially from the sixteenth through seventeenth centuries. New methods of inquiry weakened inherited accounts of nature and knowledge.
Max Weber : A German sociologist who analyzed rationalization, bureaucracy, authority, and the development of capitalism. His account links modern institutions to expanding calculation and formal rules.
Tradition : Practices, beliefs, and institutions transmitted across generations and treated as inherited authority. Modernity often defines itself against inherited authority, even as traditions persist within it.
Modernization theory : A set of theories explaining social change as a transition from traditional societies toward industrial economies and mass institutions. It turns modernity into a proposed model of development, often criticized for assuming one path.
Secularization : The declining social authority of religious institutions and explanations, alongside the differentiation of secular institutions. It marks the changing place of religion in modern public life.
French Revolution : The political upheaval beginning in 1789 that ended the French monarchy and advanced citizenship and popular sovereignty. It gave modern political ideals a forceful, institutional form.
Karl Marx : A German philosopher and political economist who analyzed capitalism through class conflict and historical change. He framed modernity as a transformation driven by capitalist production and struggle.
Postmodernity : A proposed cultural and social condition marked by skepticism toward universal narratives and stable foundations. It names a disputed successor or challenge to modernity’s confidence in progress.
Alienation : A condition in which people experience their work, social relations, or institutions as estranged from their own agency. Industrial and bureaucratic systems can separate people from control over their activity.
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