Defending Modernity: Habermas, Touraine and Giddens

Sociology of modernity has become a major area of study since 1980’s in the social sciences and contemporary social theorists have contributed to this corpus by their works. Works of these theorists have illuminated the main principles and characteristics of modernity which have not been thus far conceptualized in social theory sufficiently. In their attempts to conceptualize modernity which has evoked by the modernity debates, these writers have come to take part in a group of theorists which can be called “modernists” with regard to their theoretical position. Habermas, Touraine and Giddens are leading figures among modernist social theorists. Each of these three theorists agrees that social world is in a historical continuity and rejects the idea that modernity has come to an end. Habermas, as the leading modernist, defends modernity against the arguments of postmodernism. Touraine regards early modern era as the ideal form of modernity and criticizes late modernity from this point of view. Instead of defending it, Giddens pays attention to understand the nature of modernity. Accordingly he investigates the main characteristics of the new phase of modernity which he thinks is the result of the nature of modernity. Hence, although the modernist theorists are of the same opinion in defining the phase in which we live as modern, they diverge from each other by developing different perspectives on modernity. This article focuses on the analyses of modernity of Habermas, Touraine and Giddens as modernist theorists. In this direction, their approaches to modernity will be examined in a comparative perspective.

Keywords

Modernity, Sociology of Modernity, Social Theory, Jürgen Habermas, Alain Touraine, Anthony Giddens.