New Modernity? Geopolitical Restructuring and Technological Acceleration In a Post-Neoliberal Era

This session interrogates the conceptual limits of 'modernisation' by examining the profound intersection between the shifting global balance of power and the pervasive rise of technologies. Classical monistic theories of modernity, and even Shmuel Eisenstadt's paradigm of 'multiple modernities', are increasingly challenged by the decentring of Euro-American hegemony and the structural decline of the neoliberal consensus. But do these approaches retain any utility in understanding contemporary social processes?

Contributors to this panel are invited to explore whether the current global restructuring constitutes a novel phase of modernisation or a definitive rupture that demands an entirely new sociological lexicon. The session will focus on how the algorithmic mediation of the social sphere and platform economies intersect with shifting geopolitical realities.

Submissions should address questions such as: Does the integration of social acceleration, as conceptualised by Hartmut Rosa, with non-Western trajectories of development produce a new structural formation? Furthermore, how does the retreat of classical neoliberalism alter the historical trajectory of technological advancement? By synthesising postcolonial critiques of Western-centric progress with analyses of digital capitalism, this panel seeks to develop theoretical tools capable of capturing the complexities of contemporary societal transformations without relying on antiquated teleologies.