Deck 14: Contemporary Theories of Modernity

Question 1

_____ saw modernity as defined through capitalism.

A) Karl Marx
B) Max Weber
C) Emile Durkheim
D) George Simmel

Answer 1

A

Question 2

_____ saw modernity as a shift toward organic solidarity along with the erosion of the collective conscious that mechanical solidarity is based on.

A) Karl Marx
B) Max Weber
C) Emile Durkheim
D) George Simmel

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Which of the following modern institutions did Anthony Giddens describe as creating a class system through commodity production, private ownership of capital and propertyless wage labor?

A) Capitalism
B) Industrialism
C) Surveillance capacities
D) Control of the means of violence

Answer 3

A

Question 4

_____ saw modernity as a juggernaut that nobody can really control as it moves through time and over space.

A) Karl Marx
B) Max Weber
C) Emile Durkheim
D) Anthony Giddens

Question 5

According to Anthony Giddens, _____ is a modern process where social relations are lifted out of local contexts.

A) distanciation
B) disembedding
C) reflexivity
D) disflexivity

Question 6

According to Anthony Giddens, _____ is a modern process where social practices are evaluated and reformed.

A) distanciation
B) disembedding
C) reflexivity
D) disflexivity

Question 7

Which classic theorist(s) was aware of the advantages modernity offered? Select all, but only those that apply.

A) Karl Marx
B) Max Weber
C) Emile Durkheim
D) George Simmel

Question 8

Which of the following modern institutions did Anthony Giddens describe as producing goods with power sources and nonhuman machinery?

A) Capitalism
B) Industrialism
C) Surveillance capacities
D) Control of the means of violence

Question 9

Which classic theorist(s) critiqued problems brought about by modernity? Select all, but only those that apply.

A) Karl Marx
B) Max Weber
C) Emile Durkheim
D) George Simmel

Question 10

Which of the following modern institutions did Anthony Giddens describe as a supervision of activities, especially political ones?

A) Capitalism
B) Industrialism
C) Surveillance capacities
D) Control of the means of violence

Question 11

Which of the following essential aspects of Giddens' structuration is modern? Select all, but only those that apply.

A) Distanciation
B) Disembedding
C) Reflexivity
D) Disflexivity

Question 12

Which of the following institutions did Anthony Giddens see as inherent to modernity? Select all, but only those that apply.

A) Capitalism
B) Industrialism
C) Surveillance capacities
D) Control of the means of violence

Question 13

_____ is most often thought of as both a modernist and a postmodernist.

A) Karl Marx
B) Max Weber
C) Emile Durkheim
D) George Simmel

Question 14

Which of the following is a reason why time and space distanciation is important to modernity? Select all, but only those that apply.

A) It makes the growth and expansions of rational organizations possible.
B) It allows the present to be molded from the past.
C) It makes disembedding possible.
D) It reduces disflexivity.

Question 15

_____ saw modernity as an expansion of formal rationality.

A) Karl Marx
B) Max Weber
C) Emile Durkheim
D) George Simmel

Question 16

_____ saw modernity as entailing urbanization and a shift toward a money economy.

A) Karl Marx
B) Max Weber
C) Emile Durkheim
D) George Simmel

Question 17

How can George Simmel's The Philosophy of Money be characterized in terms of modernity? Select all, but only those that apply.

A) Money brings about an intrinsic power to human beings.
B) Money has a powerful effect on society.
C) Money has adverse consequences for individuals.
D) Money has adverse consequences for society.

Question 18

Which of the following modern institutions did Anthony Giddens describe as a military power that grows out incorporating machinery and technology into instruments of war?

A) Capitalism
B) Industrialism
C) Surveillance capacities
D) Control of the means of violence

Question 19

Which classic theorist(s) wrote during the emergence and ascendency of modernity? Select all, but only those that apply.

A) Karl Marx
B) Max Weber
C) Emile Durkheim
D) George Simmel

Question 20

According to Anthony Giddens, _____ is a modern process where time, space, and place are realigned.

A) distanciation
B) disembedding
C) reflexivity
D) disflexivity

Question 21

Sociologists debate whether we live in a modern or postmodern world.

Question 22

Which of the following critiques does Jurgen Habermas direct toward postmodernists? Select all, but only those that apply.

A) Postmodernist creates literature not theory.
B) Postmodernists have no goals.
C) Postmodernists fail to identify specific sites for analysis much less reformation.
D) Postmodernists ignore daily life.

Question 23

According to Charles Taylor, modern _____ is entwined with unbelief as opposed to secularization.

A) selves
B) social imagery
C) religion
D) structure

Question 24

Which institution does Charles Taylor describe as bringing people into a community who were once separated by space and time?

A) The Economy
B) The Public Sphere
C) The Sovereign People
D) Fashion

Question 25

Which institution does Charles Taylor describe as no longer equated with management of the modern household?

A) The Economy
B) The Public Sphere
C) The Sovereign People
D) Fashion

Question 26

Which institution does Charles Taylor describe as providing a common place for meetings in secular time?

A) The Economy
B) The Public Sphere
C) The Sovereign People
D) Fashion

Question 27

Which of the following is a type of disembedding that removes social relations from local contexts? Select all, but only those that apply.

A) Distanciation
B) Symbolic tokens
C) Expert systems
D) Disflexivity

Question 28

Which of the following could protect against another holocaust? Select all, but only those that apply.

A) Rationality
B) Morality
C) Pluralistic politics
D) Modernity

Question 29

According to Ulrich Beck, in classical industrial society _____.

A) nature and society are separated
B) nature and society are entwined
C) changes in society affect nature
D) society is nature and nature is society

Question 30

Which theorist sees the modern world as built on a foundation of moral orders?

A) Anthony Giddens
B) Jurgen Habermas
C) George Ritzer
D) Charles Taylor

Question 31

According to Charles Taylor, _____ is built from moral grand narratives that often create a malaise of modernity because those stories promote individualism rather than a sociality.

A) the self
B) social imagery
C) religion
D) structure

Question 32

According to Charles Taylor, _____ is entwined in everyday life because unlike previous eras, modernity lacks a hierarchy because a moral idolization of equality.

A) the self
B) social imagery
C) religion
D) structure

Question 33

Which institution does Charles Taylor describe as linking people through goods and services?

A) The Economy
B) The Public Sphere
C) The Sovereign People
D) Fashion

Question 34

According to Ulrich Beck, in advanced industrial society _____. Select all, but only those that apply.

A) nature and society are separated
B) nature and society are entwined
C) changes in society affect nature
D) society is nature and nature is society

Question 35

Which of the following is a reason why there are negative consequences to the juggernaut of modernity? Select all, but only those that apply.

A) Design faults
B) Operator failure
C) Unintended consequences
D) Reflexivity of knowledge

Question 36

Which institution does Charles Taylor describe as comprised of mutual display and mutual recognition?

A) The Economy
B) The Public Sphere
C) The Sovereign People
D) Fashion

Question 37

Today, which theorist is leading the defense of modernity and rationality against assaults by postmodernists?

A) Anthony Giddens
B) Jurgen Habermas
C) George Ritzer
D) Zygmunt Bauman

Question 38

According to Zygmunt Bauman, The Holocaust reflects Weber's ideas about rationality because it _____. Select all, but only those that apply.

A) was efficient
B) was calculated
C) was quantitatively driven
D) used nonhuman technologies

Question 39

According to Zygmunt Bauman, _____ is a modern process that produced The Holocaust.

A) distanciation
B) disembedding
C) reflexivity
D) formal rationality

Question 40

According to Manuel Castells, which of the following is a basic characteristic of the information technology paradigm central to modernity? Select all, but only those that apply.

A) Technologies have pervasive effects because they act on information that is important to all human activity.
B) A "networking logic" affects many processes and organizations.
C) Technologies adapt because they are flexible.
D) Technologies are merging into an integrated system.

Question 41

According to Ulrich Beck, political subgroups are more reflexive and self-critical in the management of risks than the government.

Question 42

Giddens's utopian realism balances ideals with the realities of modernity via "radical politics."

Question 43

Anthony Giddens's Juggernaut of Modernity is a grand theory with a unidirectional prediction of where society is headed.

Question 44

Anthony Giddens argues that modernity entails an increasing amount of risk.

Question 45

According to Ulrich Beck, the government is the dominant manager of risks in modern industrial society.

Question 46

All sociologists agree that we live in modern world.

Question 47

Anthony Giddens agrees with the postmodern assumption that systematic knowledge is impossible.

Question 48

In bridging two arenas of social thought, George Simmel can be thought of as both a modernist and a postmodernist.

Question 49

All sociologists agree that we live in postmodern world.

Question 50

Anthony Giddens's Juggernaut of Modernity is fitting with his ideas on structuration because it accounts for both time and space.

Question 51

Anthony Giddens thinks modern reflexivity is applied to both the self and large-scale social institutions.

Question 52

Similar processes of modernity created both fast food and The Holocaust.

Question 53

Both Anthony Giddens and Ulrich Beck see late stage modernity as risk societies.

Question 54

Anthony Giddens argues that modernity entails a breaking down of trust throughout society.

Question 55

According to Ulrich Beck, people are relatively free from risk in the contemporary era of reflexive modernity.

Question 56

According to Ulrich Beck, modernity expands people's ability to reflexively manage risks.

Question 57

Most of the classical sociologists critiqued modern society.

Question 58

Most of the classical sociologists analyzed modern society.

Question 59

According to Ulrich Beck, modernity erodes people's ability to reflexively manage risks.

Question 60

Anthony Giddens's Juggernaut of Modernity is fitting with his ideas on agency because it affords human actors great power of their destiny.

Question 61

Describe how different theorists incorporate science and technology into their characterization of modernity.

Question 62

Zygmunt Bauman thinks modernity is more of a "light cloak" rather than the "iron cage" Max Weber predicted.

Question 63

Describe how different theorists describe the individual or self via their characterization of modernity.

Question 64

Jurgen Habermas looks towards social movements rather than governments to finish the project of modernity.

Question 65

According to Zygmunt Bauman, in early modernity it was mostly elites rather than the poor who entrenched or solidified their existence.

Question 66

According to Zygmunt Bauman, in late modernity it is mostly the poor as opposed to elites who become entrenched or solidified their existence.

Question 67

Describe how different theorists incorporate the nation-state into their characterization of modernity.

Question 68

Jurgen Habermas thinks the project of modernity is finished.

Question 69

According to Zygmunt Bauman, in early modernity it was mostly the poor rather than elites who entrenched or solidified their existence.

Question 70

According to Zygmunt Bauman, The Holocaust was an abnormal deviation during the process of modernization.

Question 71

According to Jurgen Habermas, under the conditions of unfinished modernity there is a takeover of the life world by the formal rationality of the social system.

Question 72

Jurgen Habermas looks to the bureaucratic, social welfare state to complete the project of modernity.

Question 73

Jurgen Habermas thinks the project of modernity will be finished when, or if both the lifeworld and social system can rationalize themselves.

Question 74

According to Zygmunt Bauman, modern bureaucracy help make The Holocaust possible.

Question 75

According to Zygmunt Bauman, in late modernity it is mostly elites as opposed to the poor who became entrenched or solidified their existence.