Entertainment · Books & Arts · 13 hrs ago
Spanish philosopher María Rosa Rodríguez Magda revisits her idea of transmodernity
Spanish philosopher María Rosa Rodríguez Magda has presented an expanded edition of her book Transmodernidad in Madrid.
She first developed the idea about 37 years ago, during a conversation with French philosopher Jean Baudrillard.
She argues that society has transformed modernity rather than moved beyond it.
Her examples include transnational life, changing ideas about gender, and emerging forms of technology and human enhancement.
Rodríguez Magda says this framework can help people understand a present shaped by those changes.
She also argues that women still face inequality and violence.
She criticizes claims that women have already achieved equality and no longer need protection.
Spanish philosopher María Rosa Rodríguez Magda has presented an expanded reissue of her book Transmodernidad.
She says the concept of transmodernity, which she coined 37 years ago, remains relevant and should help explain the present.
Rodríguez Magda argues that society has transformed from within modernity rather than breaking with it into a postmodern era.
She points to changes including the transnational, transgender and transhuman as examples of that transformation.
She first came up with the concept while speaking with French philosopher Jean Baudrillard in Paris around 1989.
- Who
- María Rosa Rodríguez Magda, a Spanish philosopher and feminist.
- What
- She has presented an expanded reissue of Transmodernidad and argues that transmodernity remains a useful way to understand the present.
- When
- The reissue was presented a few weeks before the article was published on November 9, 2026.
- Where
- The presentation was in Madrid. She says she coined the concept while speaking with Jean Baudrillard in Paris.
- Why
- She says the concept remains relevant because society has transformed rather than broken with modernity.
Those who want a return to modernity as it was
Those who see a break from modernity
View of change
Those who want a return to modernity as it was
They think society should return to modernity as it was.
Those who see a break from modernity
They think there has been a postmodern break and do not want to engage with modern challenges.
View of the present
Those who want a return to modernity as it was
Rodríguez Magda says this group is mistaken because society cannot return to the 18th century.
Those who see a break from modernity
Rodríguez Magda says this group also misses that the present is a transformation, not a rupture.
Rodríguez Magda says she came up with the concept of transmodernity while speaking with Jean Baudrillard in Paris.
Rodríguez Magda presented an expanded reissue of Transmodernidad in Madrid.
- Author
- María Rosa Rodríguez Magda
- Book
- Transmodernidad
- Publisher
- Herder
- Concept coined
- 37 years before the article
- Presentation location
- Madrid
- Article publication date
- November 9, 2026
What people are saying
My hypothesis is that there has never been a postmodernity that marked a rupture with modernity.
What I argue is that we have never really been in that rupture, but in a transformation.
Well, if there are only a few of us, yes.