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New Media & Society
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Transformative democracy in the age of second modernity: cosmopolitanization, communicative agency and the reflexive subject

Sean P. Hier

University of Victoria, Canada, shier{at}uvic.ca

While international scholarly momentum continues to build around Ulrich Beck's ideas on risk, politics and reflexivity, his commentary on transformative democracy is only beginning to attract scholarly interest. To better understand the theoretical and conceptual dynamics of transformative democracy in the age of second modernity, I use Mark Poster's work on digital media and the culture of under-determination to focus analytical attention on the socio-technical domains from which the democratic-cosmopolitan imperative should be expected to garner strength. I argue that Beck's largely structuralist cosmopolitanization thesis can be strengthened by a supplemental understanding of the material-communicative dimensions inherent to processes of individualization, reflexive modernization and sub-political mobilization. Introducing certain correctives to Beck's `cosmopolitan manifesto', I explore the complexities of second modern communicative agency and the constitution of the reflexive, socio-technical subject. My primary purpose is to develop theoretical and conceptual insights into the socio-technical aspects of transformative democracy in second modernity.

Key Words: cosmopolitanism • digitalization • second modernity • social movements • socio-technologies • subjectivity

New Media & Society, Vol. 10, No. 1, 27-44 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1461444807085320
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