"Modernism Today" examines the forces that shaped modern industrial societies and the new structures and relationships that govern politics, culture, economy, and society at the threshold of the 21st century. The main discussions about these changes are presented accurately and critically examined in the chapters, as well as in the accompanying texts. Some of the topics addressed in the work include the collapse of the Soviet regime, the political and social transformation of Eastern Europe after the 1989-1991 period, the challenge of globalization, the environmental threat to modern societies, the prospect of the post-industrial era, and the cultural changes in the "postmodern" era. "Modernism Today" also explores the nature of modernism and the relationship between early modernism and late or post-modernism, while simultaneously evaluating the adequacy of examples in the understanding of contemporary social formations.
The book is a useful tool for both novice researchers and experts in the social sciences who continue to explore social reality in the so-called post-industrial era. Parallel texts by a variety of well-known theorists, including Anthony Giddens, Manuel Castells, Francis Fukuyama, Alex Callinicos, Andre Gorz, David Harvey, Jean-Francois Lyotard, Jurgen Habermas, and Zygmunt Bauman, are included.
The chapters are authored by David Held, Anthony McGrew, Stephen Yearley, John Allen, Kenneth Thompson, Stuart Hall, and Gregor McLennan, and cover the following topics:
- Liberalism, Marxism, and Democracy
- A Global Society
- Environmental Challenges
- Post-Industrialism and Post-Fordism
- Social Pluralism and Post-Modernism
- The Issue of Cultural Identity
- The Enlightenment Project Reconsidered.
The volume includes detailed foreign bibliography (with comprehensive citation of the Greek translation where available), extensive indexes of terms and names (in Greek and foreign languages), illustrations that highlight the main points of the discussion, as well as activities for those who wish to have an in-depth familiarity with the authors' research.