Postmodernism Flashcards
1
Q
What is Postmodernity?
A
- follows on from modernity (modernity was the enlightenment project)
- globalisation and increased access to knowledge challenges old metanarratives of society
2
Q
What are the features of post-modernity?
A
- Increased DIVERSITY and CHOICE
- Increased hybridity (merging or creation of new cultures)
- Influence of globalisation
3
Q
Who are the key theorists of postmodernity?
A
- Lyotard
- Baudrillard
4
Q
What did Lyotard argue?
A
- people have stopped believing in one truth, no longer believes in one truth
- Technical language games: people try develop their own perspectives on events
5
Q
What did Baudrillard argue?
A
- Hyper reality and a media saturated reality
- Signs and symbols have meanings of their own that we can’t distinguish
- images are illusions of reality e.g., celebrities
6
Q
What is the role of the media?
A
- Media saturation causes simulacra and hyper reality, these are images that aren’t real
- we turn to what we think is real so our perspective always changes
- Society becomes fragmented and unstable because there is no fixed value
7
Q
(Postmodernity and narratives) What happened to the narritives after postmodernity?
A
- Narratives are broken into smaller narratives and multiple identities
- this creates uncertainty and confusion
8
Q
(Postmodernity and narratives)
A
- Structural identities such as class gender and ethnicity become less certain
9
Q
What are the evidence of postmodernism?
A
- Diversity of family and personal choice
- Greater fluidity in relationships, identity and appearance
- Emergence of hybrid cultures
- globalisation
- media saturation
10
Q
What are the evaluations of postmodernism?
A
- Marxists argue it ignores power and inequality, ruling class control of institutions such as media and education
- Too deterministic, do people actually believe the media?
- Role of class, gender and ethnicity relevant in contemporary in society
11
Q
What is globalisation?
A
- The increase of interconnectedness of people across national boundaries
12
Q
What are the 4 related changes that have helped bring globalisation about?
A
- Technological changes
- Economic changes
- Political changes
- Changes in culture and identity
13
Q
What is technological changes?
A
- we can cross entire continents in the matter or hours due to the creation of planes
- we can exchange information globally
- risk on a global scale (Beck “risk society” which are man made threats based on our decisions)
14
Q
What is Economic changes?
A
- “Electronic economy” instead of producing physical goods, activities now involve production of information produced by global electronic networks
- For example, music, TV programmes and data processing
- Transnational companies reinforce capitalism
15
Q
What is political changes?
A
- Globalisation has undermined the power of the state. - Ohmae “we live in a borderless world” argues that transnational companies and consumers have more power
- States are less able to regulate the activities of large capitalist society
16
Q
What is changes in culture and identity?
A
- Western owned media companies bred the western culture globally
- Economic integration is when transnational companies promotes similar tastes
- increased movement of migrants, refugees, asylum seekers help to create a globalized culture
- globalization undermines class, shifted from manufacturing in the west to developing countries, this leads to fragmentation and decline in working class communities
17
Q
What does Foucault argue?
A
- there are no sure foundations to knowledge, no objective idea to prove whether a theory is true (anti foundationalism)
18
Q
What are the two consequences of anti foundationalism?
A
- the enlightenment project, of achieving progress through true, scientific knowledge is dead (we don’t know if our knowledge is correct, we cant use it to improve society)
- any all/embracing theory that claims to have the truth about how to create a better society, such as Marxism is a mere meta narrative or big story - and is just someone’s version of reality and not the truth.
19
Q
How does media impact culture?
A
- the media are all pervading and they produce and endless stream of everchanging images, values and versions of the truth
- as a result culture becomes fragmented and unstable, because there is no longer a coherent or fixed set of values shared by members of society
- this also undermines peoples faiths in metanarratives because there are so many versions of the truth
20
Q
How does media impact identity?
A
- identity also becomes destabilised for example instead of a fixed identity, it is ascribed by our class, we can now construct our own identity from the wide range or images and life styles on offer in the media
- this means we can easily change our identity, simply by changing our consumption patterns
