Every society whether they are traditional or modern has some common properties and also has significant differences. In reality even in the 21st century there exists much different mixture of traditional and modern societal structures. As, well they have evolved in different ways due to historical, cultural heritage and the role of religion in their societies as well as the peculiarities of their economic system and social norms of collectivism and individualism promoted and accepted by the society as a whole. However, they all have considerably changed particularly after the Industrial revolution in the 19th century and to varying degrees accepted and initiated the materialist principles of the industrial societies and rationalism and technological development and bureaucratization of their society there by improved their economic well being. As well, they also suffer the many negative effects of industrialization in a social and in an environmental and cultural perspective.
The above empirical evidence shows that society and its impact on individuals and the individuals create their own social world is more complex and the impact of interaction of macro sociological factors and individual social world is complex and their degree of interaction of different factors differ from one society to the next and in different cultural environments.
In addition, no society had stability within their systems and they have stability in one period but not in other. Political and social turmoil has taken place in the developed and in the less developed world. For example, the current crisis in varying degrees in a social and economic sense in the developed world is a reality and instability is a possibility and uncertainty is a norm than exception.
The modern world faces grave dangers like environmental degradation, energy crisis, poverty, economic instability, economic and political turmoil in Africa and in Asia, terrorism, arms development and nuclear technology particularly in weapons development by emerging powers and geo political issues particularly in the Middle East as well natural disasters and growing inequality in income and wealth in developed and developing world and refugee crisis and immigration issues. In addition, globalization has benefited all countries in the same time they also had some negative effects and the benefits are not equally benefited all countries.
This shows modern societies have benefits as well as have negative impacts in some sections and groups of society and the current economic system produces inevitable conflict and social alienation and it has to be managed and market system alone will not solve these problems adequately. White collar crime, reduction of ethical behavior, market power, labor industrial relations issues, child labor, bureaucratization of society and its negative effects as identified by Max Weber and other functionalist and also by Marxist sociology is important and their insights on a sociological point of view is vital to solve the current social problems to some extent as well incorporate some insights of micro sociologists like interactions theory and ethno sociologist point of view and their perspectives.
As explained above the social phenomenon and the social world and the political dynamics so complex no sociological theories can explain fully all social issues and how society affects individuals and how individuals affects society. The liberal or the macro sociologist view in them selves alone will not explain all social phenomenon and variety and combination of theories is most applicable in different situations than using theories in an arbitrary sense or in an ideologically driven sense to select theories to explain the complex social world.
As discussed above all societies have advantages and disadvantages whether they are traditional or modern. As well, no theories can fully explain all social issues fully as the social world interacts with political dynamics and with economics and how the economic systems work and the interaction of individuals to create society and the issue of rationality, emotions, values, culture has to be taken in to account to fully understand and explain the social dynamics and social change or the social consensus or conflict.
