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Stuart Hall: Modenity and introduction to modern societies 1995

Stuart Hall: Modernidad e introducción a las sociedades modernas

1995.

What we mean by "modern" is that each process led to the emergence of certain distinctive

features or social characteristics. andit is these features which. taken together provide us withour definitionof "modernity." In this sense. the term "modern" does not mean simply that the phenomenon isof recent origin. It carries a certain anal y tic and theoretical value. Because it is related to aconceptual model. What are these defining features or characteristics of modern societies?

¿Qué queremos decir con "moderna" es que cada proceso condujo a la

aparición de ciertas características distintivas, o características sociales. y es

que estas características. en conjunto nos proporciona nuestra definición de la

"modernidad". En este sentido. el término "moderno" no significa simplemente

que el fenómeno es de origen reciente. Lleva un cierto valor analítico y teórico.

Debido a que se relaciona con un modelo conceptual. ¿Cuáles son los rasgos o

características de las sociedades modernas que definen?

 The dominance of secular forms of polítical power and authority and conceptions of sovereigntyand legitimacy. Operating within declined territorial boundaries. which are characteristic of thelarge. Complex structures of the modern nation-stale.

2 A monetarized exchange economy. based on the large-scaleProduction and consumption of commodities for the market.extensive ownership of private property and the accumulation of capital on a systematic. long-term basis. (The economies of EasternEuropean communist states were an exception lo some of TheseFeatures Though they were based on the large-scale industrialproduction and consumption of goods.)

3 The decline of the traditional social order wilh its fixed social

bierarchies and overlapping allegiames. and the appearance of adynamic social and sexual division of labor in modern capitalistsocieties. this was characterized by new class formations. anddistinctive patriarchal relations between men and women. 4  The decline of the religious world-view typical of traditionalsocieties and the rise of a secular and materialist culture. exhibitingthose individualistic rationalist. and instrumental impulses now soFamiliar to us. There are two other aspects of our definition of modernity whichShould be loosely included under the rubric of "Ihe cultural." The firstrefers to ways of producing and classifying knowledge. The emergenceof modern societies was marked by the birth of a new intellectual andcognitive world. which gradually emerged with the Reformation. the

Renaissance. the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century, andthe Enlightenment of the eighteenth century. This shift in Europe'sIntellectual and moral universe was dramatic. and as reconstitutiveOf the formation of modern societies as early capitalism or the rise of the nation-state. Second,"Formationsof Modemily" follows modern social analysis in the emphasis it gives to the construction of cultural and social identities as par! of the formation process. this we mean the construction of asense of belonging which draws people togetherinloan. "imagined community" and lbe construction of symbolic

lo boundarles wbich define who does not belong or is exc1uded from il.For many centuries, being "Christian" or "Catholic" was Ihe only

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common identity shared by the peoples of Western Europe. "European"was an Identity which only slowly emerged. So the formation of modero societies in Europe had to ¡elude the constructionof the language. the images. and symbols which delined these societies as