The cultural and social world produced by and in reaction to the processes of modernization, namely the advent of new ways of thinking (e.g. secularization) and the emergence of new technology (e.g. the steam engine). Modernity is used in two main ways in history and sociology: first, it can refer to any period of radical change, and in this sense there have been several periods of so-called modernity dating back to ancient times; second, it can refer to a very specific moment in history---but there is no general rule or agreement as to when this moment should be (other than that it should be one of the moments referred to in the first sense of the word). As Jameson, Fredric records in A Singular Modernity (2002), the word âmodernâ has been in use since the fifth century ad and by his reckoning has been used to refer to at least fourteen periods in history since then. Modernity in this first sense might be thought of as qualitative in that it refers only to a change in attitude; in contrast, then, we might thus specify that modernity in the second sense is quantitative in that it refers to a change in the very composition of society, not just in its attitudes. But there would still be the problem of which period counts as genuinely modern in this expanded sense and historians are divided in this regard between two principal moments in European history; the end of the âdark agesâ and the start of the industrial revolution. The choice itself depends on whether attitudes or technology is foregrounded (arguably, too, the change in attitudes was a necessary precursor to the invention of new technology). Generally, though, most uses of the term modernity tend to refer to the period also known as the Victorian era, particularly the latter half, i.e. from the 1870s onwards. As Jameson also points out, modernity is also the back-projection of postmodernism---it is the mythical moment when ânowâ began. See also alternate modernity. Further Reading: A. Appadurai Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions in Globalization (1996). M. Berman All That is Solid Melts into Air: Experience of Modernity (1982). A. Giddens The Consequences of Modernity (1991).