ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the development of the modernist mind-set and its socioeconomic influence. Modernism was born with the realization that the Western medieval way of seeing was no longer adequate. Positivism shapes the way we look at the world without our being aware of it. It is useful to begin our analysis of modernism and the ways it has shaped our view of work and education by delineating the characteristics of positivism. We live and work in a technocratic culture. An important characteristic of this technocratic culture involves the tendency to see the technological method of solving a problem to be reproducible in a number of different contexts. Modernism has promoted itself in the language of efficiency. Corporate policies and beliefs about economic theories profoundly affect the quality of our working lives. Efficiency and productivity do not countermand social and human values.
