Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici

13-15 November 2019
Palazzo del Rettorato  
Via Po 17  Turin

Paradigms of Modernity and Research Methodologies in Normative and Area Studies

The debate around Modernity is quite a complex one. Many have discussed about themes  such as:
a) What is the nature of Modernity and is it so different from the previous periods?
b) Is it the final step in human history or is there a period after Modernity (Postmodern, Late-Modern, not-anymore-Modern)?
c) Is there a bifurcation between different Modernities or is it only singular? To these questions, different thinkers have elaborated various and often contrasting approaches, which have consequently influenced the academic research methods, theories and themes in many respects. The very research paradigms of all disciplines, or even more radically, the very definitions of these disciplines, have been transformed through various allegedly modern ideas. Modernity appears as a double-edged concept, based upon a distinction between center/Identity and periphery/Other: on one hand, moderns presume to have the power to represent themselves, yet on the basis of modern premises. On the other, the images of the past (the temporal Other), and of different regions or cultures (the geographical Other) are strongly derivative of this self-definition.