Eighteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

I reevaluate the notions of an epochal shift in modernity, which were extensively discussed in the decades surrounding the turn of the millennium under such headings as post-, reflexive or liquid modernity. The main aspects of this ephochal shift are first synthesised from major sources such as Lyotard, Baudrillard, Jameson, Bauman, Beck, Lash and Urry and others under the topics of individual, society and culture. These include individuation, globalisation, destabilisation of identities and social structures, the “implosion” or amalgamation of culture and economy and more. These features are subsequently analysed as manifestations of the managerialisation of society – a comprehensive process where major social structures and identities are reshaped to accommodate the rise of the managerial class to social dominance. This paper aims to further our understanding of global social and cultural processes as shaped by changing socioeconomic patterns of domination. At the same time, it avoids the pitfalls of the Marxian paradigm which must of necessity insist that nothing inherently new is taking place in contemporary society.