Postmodernism Flashcards
What has happened to communication nowadays?
Time and space is no longer a barrier to communicate. E.G: long distance relationship.
What has happened to identities nowadays?
There are now hybrid identities and it can be purchased, like plastic surgery.
What has happened to work nowdays?
Transferred from traditional manufacturing jobs to jobs int he service sector. E.G: Winlow - night-time economy
What sociologists are Postmodernists?
Lyotard
Baudrillard
What did Lyotard argue? (2)
We should abandon the attempt to explain the social world.
People no longer believed in the ‘myth of truth’ and there is a loss of faith in science and technology as traditional religions.
Science and technology often cause problems rather than solve them.
What term did Lyotard prefer?
He preferred the term ‘little narratives’ (petit recits), those which do not attempt to present an overarching truth but offers a qualified, limited truth, relative to a particular situation. E.G: the voices of ethinic minorities.
What crimes has science and technology created? (3)
Cyber crimes (sextortion)
BPoil spill
Chernobyl
What terms does Baudrillard use and what do they mean? (2)
Simulacrum - a copy of reality
Hyperreality - a media-saturated world where media images have come to seem more ‘real’ than reality. The line between reality and fantasy have become blurred.
What is an example of hyperreality?
Chaly D.N, an influencer, has claimed she spent £1.1 million to try and live and look like Kim K.
What does Baudrillard argue? (3)
He states that we live in a worldof a simulacrum where illusions become real and simulations becone authentic.
Our experiences and knowledge is in the form of media texts or simulacra.
With social media images produce their own reality and people want their lives to appear better than they are.
His version of the future is one where society has collapsed and we are not as liberated by diversity and choice as postmodernists claim.
How would Marxists criticse Postmodernism?
They ignore structural inequalities such as social class and how this may limit how much individuals can ‘shop’ around and ftreely construct their identities.
Why is Lyotard’s theory considered self-defeating?
Why should we believe a theory that claims that no theory has the truth? Postmodernism itself is a metanarrative, he has contradicted himself.
How can Baudrillards theory be criticised?
People are not passive puppets on a string manipulated by the images around. Some people are aware that there is a reality beyond images broadcast by the media. They recognise that media images are often one-sides, partial or distorted.
How does Harvey explain changes like globalisation, consumerism and individualisation of identity? (2)
Crisis of capitalism: postmodernism arose out of this and as a result it gave a rise to new ways of accumulating profits.
Globalisation, rapid social change, consumerism and individualisation of identity reflect the latest stage of capitalism, opening up markets and new sources of profits.
What society does Beck say we are living in?
We are living in a risk society and we have risk consciousness.
