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Anthony Giddens is arguably the world's leading sociologist. In this controversial contribution to the Giddens debate, Stjepan Mestrovic takes up and criticizes the major themes of his work - particularly the concept of 'high modernity' as opposed to 'postmodernity' and his attempted construction of a 'synthetic' tradition based on human agency and structure. Testing Giddens' theories against what is happening in the real world from genocide in Africa to near secession in Quebec, Mestrovic discerns in the construction of synthetic traditions not the promise of freedom held out by Giddens but r

L'article examine brièvement comment la théorie de la modernité réflexive de Giddens, appliquée au domaine de l'intime et de la construction du soi, conduit à sa construction politique de la "troisième voie". Le texte défend que, y compris pour les critiques "de gauche" de Giddens, son analyse de la modernité est utile, parce qu'elle décrit - en creux - les limites de la portée émancipatrice de la réflexivité.

"Anthony Giddens is one of the most famous and influential sociologists of recent decades. Largely credited with the concept of the "Third Way", he continues to be a key advisor to Tony Blair ... This original and controversial book provides an excellent introduction to Giddens' work, covering the wide range of his writing from theory to self-reflexivity, modernity and politics, placing them all within the illuminating framework of a historical context. Steven Loyal argues that Giddens' writing has always embodied a political and ethical position, one that has changed considerably over the years and is best understood through the social context in which it was written. Providing a comprehensive overview of Giddens' writing, Loyal explores the many tensions and failures in Giddens' theory and argues that, overall, his work is fundamentally flawed."--Book cover

Anthony Giddens's account of social modernity gives prominence to the process of globalization. This article examines one specific aspect of Giddens's discussion of global modernity: his claim that `although everyone lives a local life, phenomenal worlds for the most part are truly global'. This idea is explored in three directions: in the context of Giddens's general theory of time-space distanciation; in relation to his discussion of the mediation of experience characteristic of modernity; and finally in relation to the `unifying' potential of the globalization process.