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Reflexive Modernization: Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order

TLDR
In this paper, three prominent social thinkers discuss the implications of "reflexive modernization" for social and cultural theory today, and the three authors offer critical appraisals of each other's viewpoints.
Abstract
The theme of reflexivity has come to be central to social analysis. In this book three prominent social thinkers discuss the implications of "reflexive modernization" for social and cultural theory today. Ulrich Beck's vision of the "risk society" has already become extraordinarily influential. Beck offers a new elaboration of his basic ideas, connecting reflexive modernization with new issues to do with the state and political organization. Giddens offers an in-depth examination of the connections between "institutional reflexivity" and the de-traditionalizing of the modern world. We are entering, he argues, a phase of the development of a global society. A "global society" is not a world society, but one with universalizing tendencies. Lash develops the theme of reflexive modernization in relation the aesthetics and the interpretation of culture. In this domain, he suggests, we need to look again at the conventional theories of postmodernism; "aesthetic modernization" has distinctive qualities that need to be uncovered and analyzed. In the concluding sections of the book, the three authors offer critical appraisals of each other's viewpoints, providing a synthetic conclusion to the work as a whole.

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Sticking Together or Falling Apart? Solidarity in an Era of Individualization and Globalization Sticking Together or Falling Apart?

Paul de Beer
TL;DR: Sticking Together or Falling Apart: Solidarity in an Era of Individualization and Globalization as discussed by the authors examines the theoretical arguments that increasing competition and capital flows between countries and growing selfishness of modern citizens hurt social solidarity.
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Identity and Environmental Education

TL;DR: In this article, the relevance of personal identity and its politics to environmental education research is explored, both conceptually and empirically, and the postmodern phenomenon of identity-seeking in a steadfastly consumer culture is relevant to unresolved questions about the critical aspirations of environmental education.
Journal Article

Community Service Learning in the Face of Globalization: Rethinking Theory and Practice

TL;DR: In this article, the intersection of globalization and community service learning has been discussed in a theoretical framework that could help service-learning educators to consider the implications of globalization for their work.
Journal Article

Trust, Social Quality and Wellbeing: A Sociological Exegesis

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that trust plays a more significant role in social quality than the current model suggests, and suggest ways in which current social theories of trust may be situated within the Social Quality theory, in terms of the normative and conditional factors.
Journal ArticleDOI

The Transition to Adulthood in Spain in a Comparative Perspective: The Incidence of Structural Factors

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe and comparatively identify the possible economic, institutional and cultural factors that take part in the process of transition to adulthood, with particular emphasis on cultural factors.