Modern Life? - Phases of Modernity

Phases of Modernity

The history of Modernity is construed in many ways. it is mainly aligned with the age of Enlightenment in the 18th Century (also known as Age of Reason). Others have noted that its spread went so far back as the 16th century during the period of Western imperialism. In relation to Media theory it is commonly understood as having emerged in and around the 15th century where the Printing press was first invented.

According to one of Marshall Berman's books (Berman 1982, 16–17), modernity is periodized into three conventional phases (dubbed "Early," "Classical," and "Late," respectively, by Peter Osborne (1992, 25):

• Early modernity: 1500–1789 (or 1453–1789 in traditional historiography)
• Classical modernity: 1789–1900 (corresponding to the long 19th century (1789–1914) in Hobsbawm's scheme)
• Late modernity: 1900–1989

In the second phase Berman draws upon the growth of modern technologies such as the newspaper, telegraph and other forms of mass media. There was a great shift into modernization in the name of industrial capitalism. Finally in the third phase, modernist arts and individual creativity marked the beginning of a new modernist age as it combats oppressive politics, economics as well as other social forces including mass media (Laughey 2007, 30).

Some authors, such as Lyotard and Baudrillard, believe that modernity ended in the mid- or late-20th century and thus have defined a period subsequent to modernity, namely Postmodernity (1930s/1950s/1990s–present). Other theorists, however, regard the period from the late 20th century to the present as merely another phase of modernity; Bauman calls this phase "Liquid" modernity, Giddens labels it "High" modernity (see High modernism).