This paper surveys the recent literature on modernity and postmodernity, and relates it with the neoliberal ideology that for thirty years was dominant in the world. In relation to modernity, it claims that major sociologists who analyzed neoliberal modernity failed to acknowledge that it was a reactionary and, consequently, a transitory form of modernity. In relation to postmodernity, it criticizes its excessive relativism and pessimism, as well as its rejection of the great narratives and of the possibility of progress. The paper acknowledges that society turned to be increasingly complex, but emphasizes that this problem is coped with an equally complex social coordination system in which informal and formal regulation are intertwined.
Modernity; Postmodernity; Neoliberalism; Sociology; Social Theory