The Understanding About “Reflexivity: In the Risk Society: Based on the Interpretation of Giddens’s Modernity Theory

Abstract

It is universally acknowledged that the risk society has occurred. In this era which is filled with modernity, we see a different outline of the social order of the past one. Under the vision of risk society, Giddens has pointed out, “We are living in a more reflective age than ever before, and the reflexivity was put with various characteristics. As a result, he has regarded the modernity as “risk society”. Furthermore, he rethought and reconstructed the modernity that is different from the traditional, which is based on the sociology theories of Marx, Durkheim, Weber and other classical theorists. In Giddens’s view, three kinds of force drive the modern social transformation to be finished, such as the separation and recombination of time and space, the disembedding mechanism and reflexivity for social structure. This paper attempts to analyze the modernity problems through Giddens’s social theory system and lays emphasis on the reflexivity on a social and individual level. What’s more, the author will discuss how to deal with the relationship between the individuals and the society, which may lead to a happier and safer social order.