Workshop: Figurations of Modernity - Global and Local Representations of Socio-cultural Change in Comparative Perspective

Organised by the Working Group “Figurations of Modernity” at the Collaborative Research Project 640 "Changing Representations of Social Order - Intercultural and Intertemporal Comparisons"

In the wake of post-modernity a new interest in modernity arose among scholars of various disciplines. First of all, this has to do with the increasing criticism of classical narratives of modernity inspired by modernization theory since the 1950s. Secondly, current changes often described as globalization and the, at least partial, decay of the nation state, which has once been considered the backbone of the project of modernity, triggered a growing awareness of the complexity of change in modern societies. One main focus of a critical rereading and deconstruction of the concept of modernity turned towards the question of its global impact. Undoubtedly, the modern project which first emerged in Western Europe was closely linked to European expansionism. The emergence of a scientific world perspective and Europe’s technological progress made explorations of the world, and colonisation, possible. Industrialization produced both a thirst for natural resources and, later, a world-wide hunt for new markets. Whereas classical modernization theory understood the colonial and imperial expansionism of 19th and 20th century Europe as the starting point of a global and homogenising dynamic of modernization that would inevitably lead to very similar conditions in each and every part of the world, such designs proved to be false as demonstrated by, for example, the current crisis of African states, the continuity of authoritarian rule in the Arab world or the outbreak of ethnic conflicts on the Balkans.

In reaction to the critique of a monolithic concept of modernity, several studies on more regionally and locally contextualized forms of modernity were published in recent years developing the notion of “multiple modernities”. Although differing in argumentation and method, these studies share the concern for the spatial and temporal dimensions of modernity, or, in other words, the diverse historical and cultural settings in which modernities across the globe have emerged. Modernities are not seen here as mere variants of one model but as different answers of societies experiencing accelerated and therefore often massive socio-cultural, political and economic change. This shift in perspective that privileges heterogeneity rather than homogeneity in the emergence of modernity also influenced the view on developments of modernities within Europe. More recent studies concerned with European history actually show a much more complex and ambivalent picture of change than previously assumed.

However, the notion of multiple modernities necessitates, more than ever, a refined reflection on what links together all these diverse developments covered by this term. One possible link which we are suggesting for discussion is to understand modernities as representations of accelerated processes of change that are historically and culturally situated and constantly (re-) negotiated in different settings, across time and in various ways. Following Geertz’ definition of cultural systems, we understand modernity as representation here in terms of a model of and a model for acting out change. Such an understanding helps examine the multilayered processes of appropriation, application and resistance to socio-cultural, political and economic transformations from the perspective of a multiple range of concrete individual and collective actors. By articulating these transformations in terms of modernization or as partaking in the project of modernity, actors engage with translocal dynamics and frames of reference as well as with very particular social and political settings while at the same time constantly reformulating and transforming both of them. Another question to be tackled is the one that concerns the spatial and temporal delimitations of specific forms of modernity. We are used to speaking of, for example, European, Muslim, African, Latinamerican or other modernities - but what exactly is it that makes and breaks the unity of these respective modernities? Or, to put it in other words, how are we to deal with heterogeneity, multiple temporalities and incongruence within regional settings as well as with more globalized linkages between them?

The workshop will bring together different perspectives on modernities in a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective. The Collaborative Research Project with its focus on intercultural and intertemporal comparisons offers a suitable framework for such an endeavour. The submitted texts should combine a theoretical approach with an empirical case study.