The Enlightenment, Modernity and
Postmodernity
Using Theory II, Week 3
Nigel Horner, adapted from Malcolm Golightley
Aims
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We will:
Critically examine the claims for knowledge in
both ‘Modernity’ and ‘Postmodernity’ and
begin to set the scene for the module task
Seek at acquire knowledge and understanding
of the emergence and development of
rationality as a key intellectual strategy of
modern society
What is social work?
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Social work is inherently political, often
implementing government policy and regulating
those who can and those that cannot access scarce
resources.
It is also a moral activity- not just about how to
help clients but about what is the right thing to do.
Social work has a dual mandate……from individuals
and from society at large, either through state
agencies or through non governmental
organisations. (Lorenz,1994 p 4)
Where are we now?
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The present day context is that there are powerful
managerialist tendencies to adopt what works
(evidence based practice) to the extent of limiting
concepts such as reflection or critical action. This
is what we call a technical rational approach
Lorenz argues that Jurgen Habermas’s theory of
communicative action has the potential to provide
a practice approach that is much stronger than the
technical approach –they are closer to the
European Social Pedagogy approach
 We
need to start with ideas
of Rationality and the
Enlightenment
 18th Century
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Political revolutions
Scientific revolution
Technical revolution
Economic revolution
 The
power of reason abolishes superstition and
traditional ways of thinking.
 Was
ist Erklärung? (What is Enlightenment?)
 “Enlightenment is man's emergence from his selfincurred immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use
one's own understanding without the guidance of
another.”
 “Sapere aude! Have courage to use your own
understanding!” (Dare to know!)
 This is an argument for individuals making up their
own minds, being independent, autonomous.
 Assumption:
the reasonable individual makes
rational choices for her/himself in the world;
 The individual is politically and economically free to
make their own choices;
 However…. Max Weber challenged the
Enlightenment faith in reason and rationality,
claiming that the rationality that defines modernity is
means / ends rationality and therefore would not
lead to a positive modern world (an example could
be enforced sterilisation / eugenics / population
control, or even statutory euthanasia)
Max Weber
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The modern world is “…stripped of all ethical
meaning; it is devalued and objectified as the
material and setting for purposive-rational pursuit
of interests. The gain in control is paid for with a
loss of meaning” (Habermas J 1981 pxvii)
Q If the rise of reason and rationality post
Enlightenment has meant the establishment of
civil liberties, has it also meant that the very
individualistic nature of this results in selfinterest in the economic sphere being pursued?
Rationality
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Rationality and self-determination are key elements of
social work (Sheppard p 100)
Max Weber suggested 4 types: practical , theoretical,
formal and substantive rationality.
Formal rationality is a form of rationality that characterizes
organizations, especially bureaucratic ones with universally
applied rules, laws and regulations.
Substantive rationality applies more to individuals who
consider a range of possible values or actions before acting.
Weber termed this substantive rationality and considered it
problematic in modern society in that rationalization of
social life makes it difficult for people to pursue particular
values
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Why was Rationality so attractive?
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Science and technology appeared to deliver ‘The Good Life’ (i.e.
“Progress”) - We may have problems - but rational science and
technology can resolve them.
Rational political systems are democratic and progressive.
Rational economic systems deliver economic progress – through
capitalism.
Reason - in the form of rational practice - is the way of
thinking that supports all of these.
 Science
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and Technology
Diseases conquered;
Food production increased;
Good quality housing;
Energy available for all;
Transport;
Quantification of data;
The Information
 Steamships
 Trains
 Flight
 Mechanisation
of travel
 Increased speed
 Moving large numbers of people around
 ‘Shrinking’ world
 Extension
of franchise
 New political states
 New political parties
Dominance of science, technology
 Mass production, mass administration
 linked to calculating economic system
 Development of the professions
 Professional technique involved in solving social
problems;
 Regular, repeatable practice;
 Uniform application of expertise;
 Equitable services;
 An audit trail of quality assurance.
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 Social
problems and issues can be dealt with
technically;
 housing, planning, population control;
 efficiency became the criterion for resolving
problems.
 Developments in public health are classic examples
of rationality producing benefits for whole
populations if they all engage in collective rationality
Is
there too much order in our lives?
or
Is
there too little order in our lives?
(The Top Gear dilemma)
 How
enlightened are we, when there is:
 Inequality, ‘social exclusion’ and disaffection;
 International inequality;
 Pollution and global warming;
 Some evidence of a reaction to ‘modern society’
 Cultural diversity – and division?
 Material wealth and intellectual poverty
 Commodification of experience
 Mechanisation
 Motor
of war?
car?
 BSE and food supply?
 Energy choices / global warming?
 Genetics?
 Surveillance of the population?
 The
promise of the Enlightenment is now a conflict
between each of its elements :
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Scientific and technical
Economic
Political
 Social
problems addressed by ‘the market’ or
technical rationality, rather than by social democracy
and government intervention.
 Rational
decision- making may have helped develop
science and technology, commerce, industry…..
 But does it help with the old question from Socrates
“How ought we to live?”
 In other words is it helpful with ethical questions
about our lives as human beings?
 This is a key question for the unit and the essay.
Key features of modernity
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Economic Production - industrial and capitalist
society, with social class as the main form of social
division...
Urbanisation - the growth of cities..
A Bureaucratic State - with a powerful central
government and administration...
Knowledge - is derived from scientific and rational
thinking - NOT religious faith, magic or superstition...
A Belief in PROGRESS - based on science and
technology....
Post-Fordism?
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Contemporary capitalism has changed in character.
Fordism was production led and was as a system of
mass production involving the standardisation of
products. Ideas of scientific management abounded
and production lines become the means of mass
production (mass production = mass markets)
Post Fordism is consumer led and is epitomised
through the use of online computer systems and
just-in-time stocking of materials. Design is now a
major selling point.
KEY FEATURES of POST MODERNITY
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Growth of the Service Sector - with a decline in
manufacturing, an increase in part-time flexible and home
working, and a rise in unemployment..
The Spread of GLOBALISATION - both Business and Culture
cross national boundaries - 'McDonaldisation' & 'Disneyisation'...
Fragmentation - increasing diversity of culture in a "Pick & Mix"
society …loss of faith in Science - people no longer believe in
'THE MYTH of TRUTH'
The End of METANARRATIVES - no 'big story' (Marxism,
Functionalism) can explain everything…
An ABANDONMENT of the OPTIMISM of the
ENLIGHTENMENT - there is no objective progress, simply a
'playful celebration of chaos'.
[Post Modernism]......is the belief that direction, evolution and
progression have ended in social history, and society is based
instead upon the decline of absolute truths, and the rise of
relativity......
RELATIVISM
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Since World War Two and the 1950's there has been the
growth of RELATIVISM within Sociology and other fields.
Relativism argues that there is no such thing as Objective
Truth. In other words 'reality' has no meaning apart from what
is believed to be real. We take science and scientific knowledge
for granted.
For example Gallileo (1564-1642) discovered that the Earth is
spinning around the Sun and now this is accepted as a Scientific
truth. However before Gallileo the 'truth' was that the Earth
was fixed at the centre of the Universe and the Sun span
around it. Everybody believed this therefore it was true.
So, if you believe something, then it is REAL.
Therefore scientific knowledge is not powerful because it is
true; it is true because it is powerful. The question should not
be "What is true?" it should be "How did this version of what
is true come to dominate in these social and historical
circumstances?"
Therefore truth and knowledge are culturally specific.
Discourse?
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MICHEL FOUCAULT (a French 'Post
Structuralist' 1926 - 1984). Foucault studies
history from a position of 'discourse theory'
(discourse is a way of thinking/talking – i.e:
language). He looks at the way certain discourses
came into being.
MICHEL FOUCAULT
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A good example of RELATIVISTIC thinking is the work of
MICHEL FOUCAULT (a French 'Post Structuralist' 1926 1984). Foucault studies history from a position of
'discourse theory' (discourse is a way of thinking/talking language). He looks at the way certain discourses came
into being.
He looks at the history of medicine and mental illness and
the discourse surrounding them.‘ Madness' for example
has not always been a 'medical' condition. Foucault argues
that the cure for leprosy in Medieval Europe left the
buildings used to confine lepers empty.
These circumstances provided a place to put 'mad' people
- out of this grew asylums and therefore psychiatrists and
over time 'madness' became described as 'mental illness'.
The 'mad' before this were not ill, they were possessed by
spirits or simply seen as the 'village idiot'.
Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007)
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A cult figure of postmodern theory with a highly
idiosyncratic approach. His writing on the nature of
the modern world and what her termed
hyperreality make interesting reading! For example
he believed that in the postmodern world people
flee from the ‘desert of the real’ to live in a
‘ecstasy of communication’ in other worlds to live
in a world influenced by the media and technology.
He was most noted for arguing that the Gulf War
was not a real war suggesting that it was a media
spectacle and an example of hyper- reality.
Jurgen Habermas
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Habermas was a member of the Frankfurt School of
critical theory. He is perhaps the last major thinker
to embrace the basic project of the enlightenment,
a project for which he is often attacked.
Communicative Action
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Habermas’s work can provide, through his theory of
communicative action, a potential paradigm for
social work practice. This is a philosophy which
seeks to retain the modernist notions of morality
and justice while allowing individuals to define
their own realities.
This is about how to incorporate service users into
a dialogue while at the same time legitimating the
traditional commitment to universalist ideals of
human rights and social justice
conclusion
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Ideas about modernism are bound up with a view
that industrialism is directed associated with
progress;
The scientific basis for modernism has produced
huge gains but not everything has been liberalising
or provided benefit for all;
Postmodernism with ideas of discourse and
relativism provide attractive alternatives to
scientific theory but are the key positions of
postmodernism incompatible with social work?