This book examines several sociological perspectives on the defining characteristics of
modernity through the construction of conceptual models. Each model specifies the prime movers
of the social system and the key agencies of change and development. According to one model
technology is the moving force in society while another emphasizes metropolitan dominance and
yet another concentrates on materialistic values and consumerism. A growing number of social
scientists perceive knowledge to be the driving force of modernity yet others emphasize
cultural pluralism or mass society. Because of the many ways dramatic changes are occurring in
so many different directions at the same time the multiple realities of modernity are
recognized and clarified. Accelerations of experimentation and innovation are occurring in all
areas of social life. The Enlightenment the industrial revolution and civil society are
emphasized as the pathways to modernity. The themes of relativity incompleteness uncertainty
and fragmentation are implicated in postmodernist critiques of the values of the enlightenment.
