Activities and Assessment

Assessment 1:

The Contemporary World/Ang Kasalukuyang Daigdig

1st Semester
Academic year 2020-2021

Name: _ _______ Date: _________

Section: _ __________ Professor: _ ___

I. Identification
Enlightenment 1. This era is marked by the increased questioning of religious teachings and the legitimacy
of the monarchy. It is also known as the “Age of Reason.”
steam engine 2. The key enabling technology of the Industrial Revolution was the invention and
improvement of the _________.
_95 Theses_ 3. Martin Luther wrote______, a collection of writing which denounced the wealth and
corruption of the church.
_Iron Cage__4. _______ is brought by the expansion of bureaucracy that crushed individual creativity and
autonomy.
_Modernity__5. It refers to modes of social life or organization which emerged in Europe from about the 17th
century onwards and which subsequently became more or less worldwide in their influence.
Non-governmental organizations 6. ________ are independent of governments which aim to influence
governments with a specific goal, and provide services. They are typically non-profit but receive funding
from companies or membership fees.
_Humanism_ 7. A Renaissance perspective with the main ideology of “man is the center of his own
universe.”
_Feudalism__8. It was a way of structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in
exchange for service or labor.
_Mechanical_ 9. This type of solidarity is present in traditional societies where people are basically alike and
doing the same kind of work, hence they have shared moral values.
United Nations 10. It is the largest, most familiar, most internationally represented and most powerful
intergovernmental organization in the world.
Sustainable Development Goals 11. The _______ are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the
planet and improve the lives and prospects of everyone, everywhere.
_computer__ 12. The ________ is the usual representation of digital media and the most significant medium
to influence globalization.
World Trade Organization 13. An intergovernmental organization that is concerned with the regulation
of international trade between nations.
Cultural Imperialism 14. The cultures of more developed nations invade and take over the cultures of less
developed nations.
Korean Wave 15. is the increase in global popularity of South Korean culture since the 1990s.

II. Enumeration
1. What are the hallmarks of economic globalization?
 The domination of transnational corporations (TNCs)
 The liberalization and internationalization of financial transactions
 Advances in data processing and information technology
 2. What are the consequences of political globalization?
 The process of political globalization will lead to the decline of territory as a
meaningful framework for understanding political and social change
 Blurring the boundaries and powers of the nation-state
 The elements of the state are increasingly pressured brought by political globalization
 Radical reaction to globalization in the form of religious nationalist movements

3. What are the impacts of cultural globalization?

 Fluidity of cultures
 Sources of identity are eroded resulting to fragmentation of the self
 People can experience different cultures vicariously

III. Essay

1. According to Anthony Giddens, modernity can be compared to a juggernaut. Explain why.

Anthony Giddens is a British sociologist who is renowned for his theory of structuration and
his holistic view of modern societies. He is also a contemporary sociological thinker that used the
term “juggernaut” as a metaphor for the paradoxical power of modernity which is both creative and
destructive. To define modernity, in simple terms, it is short for modern society or industrial
civilization. In the modern society, pace, intensity, and scope of change are greater, whether it be to
our advantage or not. With modernity emerged in Europe during the seventeenth century, modernity
continues to grow until what we call the contemporary world. Just a like a juggernaut, its growth is
merciless, unstoppable, and massive that moves forward and destroys everything in its path, just
how old institutions ceased to exist, and as it destroys it also creates; it creates new institutions for a
new world.

According to Anthony Giddens' The Consequences of Modernity (1990) he compared

modernity to a juggernaut, in which I quote, "a runaway engine of enormous power which,
collectively as human beings, we can drive to some extent, but which also threatens to rush out of
our control, and which could rend itself asunder." In other words, modernity is an engine like a
juggernaut that can be directed to some extent but cannot be fully handled because it might produce
grave consequences. In modernity, new institutions, cultures, and advancements have already been
made so there are so much we can lose if the advancement of the juggernaut is completely out of
our control. He also said, "But, so long as the institutions of modernity endure, we shall never be
able to control completely either the path or the pace of the journey." The institutions of modernity he
mentioned were capitalism, industrialism, surveillance, and military power. These institutions will
they are somehow important parts in modern society, they are also a destruction if it continues. For
instance, military power in modernity will be a means of violence and later transcendence of war and
through surveillance will control the information and supervise people's activities in the political
sphere.

As we are currently riding the juggernaut, we are trying to harness or at least direct it in a
way we can minimize dangers and to maximize opportunities and its benefits for us. While riding the
juggernaut, we can determine its design faults and operator failures in which we can categorize in
unintended consequences, and reflexivity or circularity of social knowledge. These are significant
that we cannot take one for granted because it will take a toll in humanity. All the more reason that
we cannot give up attempting to steer the juggernaut. Giddens (1990) also mentioned that the ride is
not always unpleasant or unrewarding: it can often be exhilarating and charged with hopeful
anticipation. Modernity, aside from destruction, also paved way for innovation and invention in
technology. However, if we reached high consequence global risks, which is a character of
modernity as being a juggernaut, no individuals or groups are responsible for them or be able to fix
the situation. As Anthony Giddens wrote, "In turn, we shall never be able to feel entirely secure,
because the terrain across which it runs is fraught with risks of high consequence." These high
consequence risks no matter how low the probability is will not disappear, thus the juggernaut effect
is inherent in modernity; it can be minimized but it cannot be stopped. Again, the juggernaut is a
metaphorical representation of how modern society proceeds from pre-modern society as it destroys
and creates continuously, overwhelming everything in its path.