Force fields of the modern: The symbolic contestation of power Page 1 of 31 PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com). © Oxford University Press, 2018. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Subscriber: OUP-Reference Gratis Access; date: 15 October 2021 Subject: Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience Online Publication Date: Oct 2021 DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198813781.013.39 Force fields of the modern: The symbolic contestation of power Prem Poddar The Oxford Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution Edited by Nathalie Gontier, Andy Lock, and Chris Sinha Abstract and Keywords The essentially contested notion of the modern, and its cognate form “modernity,” have a long intellectual history. The emergence and dissemination of the idea of Western moder nity was sometimes forcibly imposed, sometimes partially accepted, and sometimes re sisted at different levels around the globe. Recent thinking has produced qualifiers and prefixes such as “unfinished,” “post-,” “late,” “inevitable,” “contra-,” “alternative,” or “dif ferential” in relation to modernity, to signal the striations in approaches, interpretations, and positionings towards what is seen as an umbrella term to describe the various possi bilities that can be brought to bear while considering contentions in contemporary theory and praxis. The social, economic, political, and cultural dimensions of this field of forces are integral to any thinking about the symbolic contestation of power in multifarious re- imaginings. This article charts this field mainly by looking at the colonial and postcolonial interventions that have impacted and continue to the present day to effect and inflect cul tures and societies, including pressing questions of climate change and cyberspace. Sec tions are sorted under the following sub-headings: “The vortex of the modern;” “Subal tern bodies, subversive minds;” “Communication and colonization: Re-inventing space and time;” “Borderlands, migrations, identities;” and “Contesting and controlling cyber space.” Keywords: differential modernities, subalternity, subversive minds, symbolic contestation, postcolonial, migrations and borders, semio/technosphere, digital colonialism, digital commons, pasts and futures “Just as water, gas and electricity are brought into our houses from far off to satis fy our needs with minimal effort, so we shall be supplied with visual and auditory images, which will appear and disappear at a simple movement of the hand ….” (Valéry, 1964, p. 226)