Shmuel Noah Eisenstadt different age-spans; between the sexes; and between different social classes, within each of which the former distinctions were elaborated in different constellations - often emphasizing in different ways such dimensions of human experience as virtue, truth and beauty, or esthetic experience. At the same time, these different arenas were connected symbolically, organizationally and institutionally in several distinct ways. On the perso nal level, these arenas were connected through a very clear structuring of life-spans, of patterns of careers of different strata of population and of dif ferent sectors within them. On the macro-societal level, these different semantic arenas were connec ted by, on the one hand, the strong emphasis on economic-industrial deve lopment and on technological-economic creativity; with, on the other hand, the creation of the new types of major socio-political centers, especially of the nation-state, as the major arenas in which the charismatic dimension of the ontological and social vision should be implemented. VI. Many of these institutional and cultural characteristics have been greatly changing, in the last decades of the twentieth century, with the development of what has been called post-industrial and post-modern trends. The most important of such changes, from the point of view of our discussion, have been: Concomitantly, there developed far-reaching changes or transformations in the mode of structuration of the basic social roles and arenas of social interaction. There took place first a weakening of the former relatively rigid, homogeneous definition of life patterns, and hence also of the boundaries of family, community, or of spatial and social organization. Second, there developed a strong tendency to the dissolution of most of the major roles from encompassing, society-wide, symbolic and institutio nal frameworks. Occupational, family, gender and residential roles have become more and more dissociated from "Stande," class and party-political regional frameworks. Such various roles tended more and more to crystal lize into continuously changing clusters, with relatively weak orientations to such broad frameworks in general, to the societal centers in particular. Third, there has taken place a redefinition of many roles and role clusters - especially the occupational and citizenship roles. Thus, in the occupational sphere there has developed first, the growing inclusion of community or 114
