Late Modern Transformations

How should late modernity be defined, and its history interpreted? This book critically reflects upon the dynamics and disruptions of transformative change that occurred between the mid-20th century to the early-21st, focusing on themes of political economy, culture, war and terrorism, and the growing conflict between material progress and its impact on the natural world.

Introducing the trope of ‘acceleration’, the irrepressible dynamics of production and exploitation that stimulate modern progress, this book shows how acceleration has intensified over those few decades, and how this intensity has increasingly provoked historical interpretation. Late Modern Transformations provides a synoptic analysis of issues and developments emblematic of complex changes including the rise of neoliberalism, the introduction of the Anthropocene and new narratives of self-expression.

Demonstrating how these transformations are rooted in the cultural sixties, and tracing their acceleration over the following decades, Late Modern Transformations reflects on the instability of globalised change, which has manifested in outbursts of terrorism, a widening wealth divide and the advance of artificial intelligence. As the human acceleration of progress has come to dominate and disorder the world’s natural systems, what can we learn from these transformative changes and how can we better harness ‘progress’?