Global Journal of Human Social Science, C: Sociology and Culture, Volume 23 Issue 2

measures are, in fact, responsible for many of the environmental, financial and employment risks thatare typical of second modernity. The behaviour of financial markets, for example, is largely the result of the decisions of global investors, the most significant of whom are institutional. It is now accepted wisdom that myopic and reckless investment policies stand behind the frequent financial crises of recent decades (Dallas, 2011). A major reason for the volatility of markets and their sensibility to distant disturbances in general is ‘the political economy of uncertainty [which] boils down essentially to the prohibition of politically established and guaranteed rules and regulations, and the disarming of the defensive institutions and associations which used to stand in the way of capital and finance becoming truly sans frontières’ (Bauman, 2001, p.119). This plays a crucial role in establishing the global freedom of the major corporations. Many of the risks of second modernity are therefore the price paid for the free rein given to transnational corporations or the dominant position of managements within them. And management profits again by offering what is presented as the only cure for these risks and uncertainties, and the only compass in a storm which it is largely responsible for creating. Bauman (2000) claimed that Crozier’s law of bureaucracy still holds in second modernity. According to Crozier, those whose positions are unregulated and therefore unpredictable rule those whom they regulate. But the truth is that in managerialism, those who generate uncertainty (while enjoying a relative job security) rule those who are subjected to it. III. P erpetual and A ccelerated C hange The accelerated rate of change, constant reshaping of institutions and social processes and the growing levels of activity and stress for time are closely related and much discussed definitive attributes of second modernity. Change has always been a hallmark of modernisation. The 19th century saw unparalleled innovation driving the sweeping growth of a new industrial and mechanised society. Life during the industrial revolutions of the 19th century was radically transformed. New ways of travelling, communicating, producing and living were introduced at an unprecedented rate. More people, particularly in the cities, joined the middle class urban lifestyle, and realised their civil liberties. Yet the innovations of first modernity involved mainly improvements of existing technologies and routines such as lighting, housework, food preparation and preservation, transport etc. Both the social institutions and the technologies of the period proved to be rather stable. National, racial, class and gender identities and relations endured and continued to dictate social roles, which did not significantly begin to change till the 1960’s. While someone from the early 20th century would probably find our cars, washing machines, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners etc. greatly improved, they would not find them unrecognisable or unmanageable. On the other hand, the typical technological inventions of the decades leading up to the turn of the millennium – mainly information and communication technologies – have a radically different character. Rather than fit into existing lifestyles and cater for existing needs, they tend mostly to create new needs and lifestyles. A typical example is multichannel cable television and 24 hour news or music channels, which reshaped the home viewing experience and were central to the early discussions of postmodernism (Jameson, 1991). It continued in full force with the likes of video gaming, social media, smart mobile devices and intelligent chat bots. The fact that such technologies create the need for their services provides them with a high degree of autonomy, which allows them to change and replace each other in ever briefer successive cycles. The general atmosphere of constant transformation spreads to other products, so that even more lasting features of the digital world, such as operating systems or web browsers, typically undergo significant redesigns every few years. They continue to offer more or less the same services (with some heavily hyped extra features) in a different layout. Such frequent redesigns have become commonplace for all types of products and services on the market in a general culture of evanescence endemic in society at large. The experience of using media and information technology is effortless and instantaneous. Based on such information and communication technologies, secondmodernity is an era of speed and immediacy, manifested in rapid delivery, ubiquitous availability and the instant gratification of desires (Tomlinson, 2007). ICTs allow us to receive quick and immediate responses to our communications and to stay connected anytime and anywhere to online information, services and businesses. Immediate ubiquitous connectivity and availability has become the social and professional norm to such an extent, that we are enraged when our communications are not answered within a very short timespan. Boundaries between work, leisure, consumption and social interaction are thus blurred as they blend into each other and can take place anywhere and anytime. However, in paradoxical contrast to the rapid pace of change, people’s lives in second modernity are no longer revolutionised as dramatically as during first modernity. Rather, it seems that the rapid succession of innovations and fashions is required simply to maintain life in second © 2023 Global Journals Volume XXIII Issue II Version I 76 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2023 C Epochal Change and Second Modernity as a Sociocultural Manifestation of Managerialism modernity in its current form.