Research Platform I "Decision-making in theories of modernization"

Decision-making plays a central role in various sociological theories of modernization and in the (self-) description of modern societies. Consequently, present-day society has been referred to as a “decision-making”, “risk” or “multi-option” society. In such descriptions, the classical model of modernity’s rationality has been largely demystified, but pre-modernity continues to be perceived as a simplistic counterfoil. We would like to take such theoretical approaches as our point of departure to ask anew the question of how the modern and pre-modern interrelate. For this purpose, it is necessary to interrogate differing theories of modernization more precisely in order to determine the claims they are making about the historical transformation of decision-making and its cultural foundations.

Speaker: Prof. Dr. Thomas Großbölting, Prof. Dr. Matthias Pohlig

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