“We live today in an era of stunning social change, marked by transformations radically discrepant from those of previous periods… the formation of intensified global communication systems, the apparent world-wide triumph of capitalism at a time at which global divisions are becoming acute and ecological problems looming more and more large – all these and other issues confront social science and have to confronted by social science.”

Anthony Giddens, “Modernity and Self-Identity,” 1991