Interpretations and critiques of modernity

Abstract

Peter Wagner has been one of the foremost theoretical sociologist for more than two decades. In particular, he has outlined an innovative way of linking social philosophy, political philosophy, and normative concerns to comparative- historical sociology. His overall goal is to describe modernity as different interpretations of modernity as an alternative to an institutional analysis of modernity. Wagner also draws heavily upon Boltanski's and Thevenot's sociology of critical capacities, in which members of society create institutions through disputes, evaluations, and everyday critiques of problematic experiences; therefore social critique is immanent in all modern institutions.