ABSTRACT
A study of the term modernity appears immediately to reveal the operation of competing theories of the social. Developments in political, economic, cultural and social life are identified through the use of an uncomfortable combination of conceptual and temporal signifiers, such as modern, late modern, ‘high’ modern or post-modern. The use of such terms enables theorists, policy makers and academics to employ a series of competing narratives that promote radically different versions of social reality, often entailing quite divergent ideas about public conduct.
