Modernity, Globalisation and Social Change
Compare accounts of modernity, late modernity and postmodernity and trace how global interdependence transforms institutions, identities and risks.
How to study A-level Sociology
For every issue, define the concept, identify the pattern, explain the mechanism, test the evidence and method, compare an alternative and reach a qualified judgement.
Core concepts
Concept 1
Globalisation involves intensifying cross-border flows and interdependence in capital, labour, culture, information, governance and risk.
Exam cue: Name the flow, network or dependency rather than using globalisation as a general cause.
Concept 2
Modernisation, dependency, world-systems, late-modern and postmodern accounts disagree about direction, power, fragmentation and uneven development.
Exam cue: Identify winners, losers and uneven effects across places and groups.
Concept 3
Social change emerges through technology, demographic shifts, political action, economic restructuring, cultural diffusion and institutional feedback.
Exam cue: Distinguish long-term transformation from a short-lived event.
Targeted study blocks
Stable specification core
Secure the regulated sociological reasoning
Contemporary society and global context where appropriate are DfE requirements, while OCR makes globalisation a compulsory contemporary debate.
Contemporary evidence
Refresh examples without rewriting the theory
Use current trade, migration or communication evidence with a stated period and mechanism; a temporary disruption does not by itself prove deglobalisation.
Risk pitfalls and guardrails
Treating globalisation as complete convergence between societies.
Guardrail: Do not treat one board's compulsory topic or centre choice as a national module, and do not present a dated statistic or policy as permanent specification knowledge.
Assuming newer social forms have replaced every older structure.
Guardrail: Do not treat one board's compulsory topic or centre choice as a national module, and do not present a dated statistic or policy as permanent specification knowledge.
Using technological change as a self-explanatory cause.
Guardrail: Do not treat one board's compulsory topic or centre choice as a national module, and do not present a dated statistic or policy as permanent specification knowledge.
Memory anchors
Globalisation
Intensification of cross-border flows, networks and interdependence across social life.
Modernity
A social order associated with industrialisation, rationalisation, nation-states and institutional differentiation.
Late modernity
An account of intensified modern processes, reflexivity, uncertainty and changing institutions.
Postmodernity
An account emphasising fragmentation, fluid identities, media-saturated culture and declining universal narratives.
Dependency
An explanation locating underdevelopment in unequal economic and political relations between regions.
Checkpoint rule
Do the check-up only after you can summarize each concept in one sentence and identify one dangerous pitfall from memory.
Knowledge Check (after reading)
Short check-up to confirm understanding of this module.
Check-up Questions
Production, communication and migration increasingly connect institutions and populations across national borders. Which broad social process is described?
Which feature is associated with modernity?
Answer all questions to submit.
Next step personalized recommendations
Continue learning
Move forward only after this module is stable.
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