Giancarlo Corsi

Contemporary society is often described in terms of regional inequalities in addition to distinctions such as development/underdevelopment or modern/traditional. These territorial differences, however evident, serve as obstacles for sociological descriptions of modernity. This paper introduces the hypothesis that every observable difference (for instance economical, political, educative or even individual) is the product of the modern societal system as a whole. Modern society, which is based on functional differentiation, is at the same time hyperintegrated and loosely coupled, totalitarian and tolerant to local deviation. In the words of the early cybernetics: it is ultrastabil. The only requirement seems to be the compatibility between local structure and the main societal structure. From this point of view, in order to observe the territorial differences of contemporary society it is crucial to choose adequate sociological distinctions. For this purpose, the current research offers distinctions like: evolution/pianification, risk/danger and inclusion/exclusion.