The Tale of Three Societies
Agnes Mura and William Bergquist
Abstract: We now live in a world that supports three different types of social structure. One of these social structures has been present for many centuries: the premodern society. A vast majority of the people now living reside in this type of social structure. Many social structures that exist in the Western World are clearly premodern. The second type of social structure is so prevalent in the world where most of us reside that it is taken for granted. This is the modern society that has existed in Western Europe since the beginning of the industrial era (early 19th Century), in North America since the early years of the 20th Century, and in urban settings in other parts of the world since World War II. We would suggest that there is now a third type of social structure that (for want of a better word) we shall identify as postmodern. This social structure now exists in many parts of the world and is rapidly assuming a prominent role at the start of the 21st Century. The profound nature of the transition that premodern societies have made in their shift to modern social structures is being matched by the profoundity of the transition that is required in the shift from modern to postmodern social structures. Furthermore, the transitions from premodern to modern and from modern to postmodern are essentially irreversible. We can never go back to a former world—though we can (and inevitably will) borrow from previous social structures as we seek to create new forms to meeting emerging needs and serve new functions.