A BRAVE New World or Business As USUAL? Changes and Continuities
A BRAVE New World or Business As USUAL? Changes and Continuities
Friday, 11 July 2025: 09:00-10:45
Location: FSE008 (Faculty of Education Sciences (FSE))
RC56 Historical Sociology (host committee) Language: English
This session will explore the present situation of modernity from both a theoretical and a more empirically oriented perspective. We are living now through multiple crisis and the world is changing fast, though with a stop-and-go rhythm. Some speak of a ‘polycrisis’ but it’s not clear what this is exactly supposed to mean. In any case, a new landscape is surely emerging. This affects politics, the economy, the state, sociabilities, moral, psychological and identity issues which need to be sociologically grasped in their interrelation, for which it is necessary, conversely, to have a good understanding of each specific aspect of the present situation. We aim at addressing some of these issues and ask which conceptual framework can possibly be mobilized to achieve this aim. Is modernity still the same? What has happened to the notion of phases of modernity – such as popularized in the 1980s-1990s? Is liberal democracy in good shape or are we witnessing changes in its conformation? What are the prospects for liberal, left and right (extreme-right) currents in the face and as propellers of these changes? Are we entering a brave new world or is business as usual at stake? What are the changes and continuities today? If these processes are global, it is on the other hand a 'combined and uneven', as well as differentiated, development what happens in this renewal or possible restructuring of modernity. Its shared trends and its heterogeneous aspects should be considered in this session.
Session Organizers:
Oral Presentations