A Record on and Modernity, Rationality and Sustainability

In my view, the point of departure for the discussion on sustainability must be taken in a sociological concept of modernisation. A comprehensive outline of this concept is not attempted here; I limit my exposition to the main points. ¹ Modernisation is the process that transforms society from being reproduced by cultural traditions, norms and habits to a society characterised by reflexivity and a societal divide into autonomous parts, fractions or sectors. Thus, the concept involves clarifying how modernity differs from traditional societies and, moreover, how the freedom to act is achieved within modernity. Habermas’s basic metaphors for such a societal divide are ‘systems’ and the ‘lifeworld’, in which different action orientations and their related rationalities exist. His term for this process is out-differentiation, which results in the difference between actions oriented towards success and actions oriented towards reaching mutual understanding.