ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the constitution of 'new societies' is an occurrence that interrogates understanding of modernity and requires widening it. It explores ways in which 'new societies' are 'modern', and maybe modern in a particular way. The chapter refers Brazil and South Africa as key examples, and contrasts to the US as a northern variant of a 'new society' and with the 'tradition of modernity' that prevailed in Europe. It suggests that recent developments in the South some of those that provide reasons why B and S exist within BRICS show a radicalization of modernity that have an impact on the North and need to be centrally taken into account in a future world-sociology of modernity. The chapter draws on research within the project Trajectories of Modernity', funded by the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme as Advanced Grant no. 249438, in which the comparison of Brazil and South Africa with European modernity is central.
