Postmodernism

Question 1

What changes do they attempt to explain?

Answer 1

Technologies
Environmental concerns
Individualisation

Question 2

What are the two approaches to explaining the changes?

Answer 2

Modernist Theories: we life in a modern society, these changes are simply an intensification of existing features in modern society - these theories are part of the enlightenment project (use rational/scientific thought to improve society)
Postmodernist Theories: social change since the 1970s is so significant that it shows how we have entered a new type of era (postmodern era)

Question 3

What are the features of a modern society?

Answer 3

Nation state
Capitalist economy
Rationality, Science and Technology
Individualism
Structural inequalities still exist

Question 4

What to Postmodernists not believe in?

Answer 4

One grand theory or meta-narrative anymore

Question 5

What does Postmodernist Baudrillard argue?

Answer 5

Culture, the zeitgeist (the spirit of the age) is what constitutes reality for most people in postmodern society - the examination of culture rather than structure should be the focus of sociology

Question 6

What is the Postmodern world characterised by?

Answer 6

Diversity and Flux - we live in an era where anything goes, all styles and fashions are acceptable and the old certainties have disappeared

Question 7

What is different about a postmodern society?

Answer 7

No longer have a set of ideas and values which control behaviour - we can pick and choose what ever we want to wear, do and how we present ourselves

Question 8

What are the features of a Postmodern society?

Answer 8

GLOBALISATION: 
technological changes (time-space compression)
economic changes (global electronic economy) 
political changes (states less able to regulate TNCs) 
changes in culture and identity (global culture - influenced by western owned media)

Question 9

How do theories of late modernity explain the changes in society?

Answer 9

These rapid changes are not the product of a new era - but are a continuation of the modern period
Features of modernity are simply becoming intensified
Giddens - we are at a stage of late modernity
Modern society goes through rapid social change (often on a global scale)

Question 10

What does Giddens argue about late modern society?

Answer 10

Tradition and custom are much less important - and no longer serve as a guide about how to act - we are very individualistic

Question 11

What happens when tradition no longer tells us how to act?

Answer 11

We are forced to become reflexive
We are constantly evaluating and re-evaluating our behaviour
Nothing is fixed or permanent
Culture becomes less certain and subject to change

Question 12

What does Beck argue about todays late modern society?

Answer 12

It is a risk society which faces new dangers
These new dangers are manufactured risks created by human activities (nuclear war, global warming)
Risk consciousness has become central to our culture - we constantly take account of risks and try to avoid them

Question 13

Why does Beck not reject the enlightenment project?

Answer 13

They are that even though scientific progress has brought manufactured risks, we can still use rational thought to over come them
e.g. the development of environmentalist movements have influenced scientific developments in a positive way

Question 14

What is a strength of theories of late modernity?

Answer 14

Take an optimistic view by arguing that a rational analysis of a society can lead to improving the society we live in and we can reduce the potential harm we do and inequalities still exists

Question 15

What is a weakness of theories of late modernity?

Answer 15

The idea of reflexivity suggests that we reflect upon our actions and are free to reduce risks and shape out lives
However, not everyone was this option (not everyone exposed to environmental risks can move, including people in disadvantaged positions in society)

Question 16

What would Postmodernists say about society? What does Baudrillard relate this too?

Answer 16

Society is entering a new and distinctive phase

Language and knowledge

Question 17

What does Braudrillard say that contradicts Marxism?

Answer 17

We have moved away from the capitalist notion of buying and selling goods to one of buying and selling signs and images, which have little relation to material reality
Advertising is big business where images sell products

Question 18

What does Baudrillard argue about contemporary society?

Answer 18

People do not distinguish between image and reality
Attaches special importance to the mass media - in TV, reality has become virtual and is distorted
We live in an unstable/fragmented media saturated global village - we define ourselves by what be consume rather than by class, ethnicity etc.

Question 19

What is Anti-Foundationalism?

Answer 19

There are no foundations to knowledge, including scientific knowledge
We cannot ever know if a theory is really accurate or not, we cannot be completely sure of anything

Question 20

What does the media create?

Answer 20

a Hyper-Reality
Culture becomes fragmented and unstable as the media produce an endless stream of ever changing images, values and versions of the truth
Confronted by so many versions of the truth, people lose faith in meta-narratives

Question 21

What is a strength of Postmodernism?

Answer 21

It makes some useful observations about the importance of the media culture and identity in society

Question 22

Why does Philo and Miller criticise Postmodernism?

Answer 22

Fail to take into account who has power in society - the ruling class own the media for instance and can decide what images to display
People are not stupid - they know the difference between fiction and reality
It is not true to say that anything goes, we are at least in part ruled by structure and we cannot entirely say what we want
The idea of pick and mix consumption patterns ignores poverty in restricting the opportunity to do this

Question 23

What do Marxists such as Jameson and Harvey argue?

Answer 23

Society has moved from modernity to postmodernity
However, rather than seeing postmodernity as a fundamental break with the past, they regard it as the most recent stage of capitalism
Leisure, culture and identity have become commodities, and increase capitalist products

Question 24

What do Marxists argue Postmodernity represents?

Answer 24

A more developed form of capitalism because it turns almost all aspects of life into a commodity

Question 25

What do Marxists argue technology has enabled?

Answer 25

Capitalism to grow in different directions, and production is more flexible in a post-Fordist economy