ON THE CONCEPT OF SOCIAL REALITY IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETIES - - LATE MODERNITY AND POSTMODERNITY.

The objective of the article is to compare two sociological concepts of social reality. Both of them refer to modernity and its' characteristic phenomena, yet they define this reality differently. On the one hand, Anthony Giddens treats the modern times as the decadent (advanced) era of modernity, the so-called late modernity. On the other hand, Zygmunt Bauman notices that postmodernity (liquid modernity) contains certain features of modernity, which not so much constitute a new-quality epoch, but unmask its malfunctions and self-deconstruction. Thus here the main question arises: what is the useful category for explaining the condition of social reality in highly developed societies? In other words, is there any handy concept that could deal with diversity of contemporary societies? One issue seems to be undoubted; modernity is no longer perceived as a milieu or a social framework for explaining contemporary social reality. What is more, both above-mentioned theoreticians provide two different visions with a meaning of an instrument that is handy for understanding this primary/elementary sociological category. Thus the article shows not only similarities and differences in the presentation of these visions but also provides some critical thoughts on both late modernity and postmodern reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]