CHANGE, TIME AND SOCIOLOGY

Glaucia Villas Bôas

doi:10.1590/2238-38752016v615

Abstract

Abstract This article readdresses the polarity of discourses against and in favor of modernity. It argues that by limiting themselves to the sphere peculiar to culture, these discourses neglect other social spheres that are equally constitutive of modern society. Both critics and apologists of modernity eventually create a distortion between understandings of modernity and social structures. After reassessing critical assumptions of classical sociology and the affirmation of modernity within Brazilian sociology, the author explores the shifting privilege of future and past times within studies of modern and contemporary art.

Highlights

I admit that I would have lacked the courage to confront such a complex and wide-ranging theme, already discussed by many others, had it not been present in some form in my own trajectory as a researcher
The interest in learning about the specific relations of change or conservation in relation to conceptions of time has been a constant part of my work
The critique of modernity has become ever more vigorous and visible, this seems to have overlooked other spheres of individual, collective, social, economic and political life in which progress, the future and the speeding up of time continue to be unavoidable everyday demands. (It suffices to recall the criteria that define the assessment programs for our activities at university, for instance.) This gap in critique has accentuated the polarity among the narratives on modernity, provoking dissonances, disjunctions and tensions by contributing to an important debate between intellectuals and artists without, though, successfully broadening the scope of its argumentation to the teleologies of everyday actions – the finalities, purposes and projects oriented towards the future, improvement and enhancement of individuals and social institutions

Summary

Introduction

I admit that I would have lacked the courage to confront such a complex and wide-ranging theme, already discussed by many others, had it not been present in some form in my own trajectory as a researcher. The critique of modernity has become ever more vigorous and visible, this seems to have overlooked other spheres of individual, collective, social, economic and political life in which progress, the future and the speeding up of time continue to be unavoidable everyday demands.

Results

Conclusion