Modnerity and Postmodernity

Question 1

What are the main features of modernity

Answer 1

achieved status
organised capitalism
unit of consumption
Englightenment project
overt social control
bounded territory
structured approach to life
one way media

Question 2

What is postmodernism

Answer 2

emerged since the 1970s , an unstable fragmented media saturated global village where image and reality are indistinguishable
we define ourselves by what we consume it is a break from modernity and society requires a new theory

Question 3

What is globalisation

Answer 3

interconnected through technology and shared culture, information and media

Question 4

What are the four features of the global village

Answer 4

technological - satellite communication have helped create a time-space compression - Beck (1992) ‘risk’ society
economic - electornic economy, global 24 hours financial transactions due to trans national compaines (Rozer - mcdonaldisation)
political - undermined the power of nation state - Ohmae (1997) we live in a borderless society where consumers have more economic power than governments
culture - harder to exists in isolation due to media spreading culture

Question 5

What does Focault say about knowledge

Answer 5

there are no sure functions to knowledge as there is no objective criteria we can use to prove wether a theory is true or false
any structuralist theory is a metanarrative which can become opressive

Question 6

What do relativists argue

Answer 6

all views are true for those who hold them, all accounts of reality are equally valid and we should celeberate diversity

Question 7

What does Lyotard (1992) argue

Answer 7

knowledge is just a series of differnt language games which creates a monopoly of truth - allowed marginalised groups to be heard

Question 8

What is simulacra theorised by Baudrillard

Answer 8

a copy without an original anymore
hyper reality signs are more real than reality itself however because they aren’t real they are meaningless
culture produces an endless stream of ever changing images and truths which undermines peopl’es faith in meta-narratives
identity becomes destabilised meaning humans can no longer imprve society

Question 9

What are the critcisms of postmodernity

Answer 9

Philo and Miller (2001) - ignores power inequalities
identity based on consumption overlooks poverty
wrong to claim we can’t distunguish realiyy
becomes valid to support extremist views
Berst and Rellner (1991) - identifies features but fails to explain how they came about
Harvey (1989) - criticised pessimism of englightenment as human knowlegde can be used to solved problems