Postmodernism

Question 1

Define Consumerism

Answer 1

the cultural dominance of marketing and consumption of material goods and services

Question 2

Define Social Exclusion

Answer 2

exclusion from the social system and its rights and privileges, typically as a result of poverty or the fact of belonging to a minority social group

Question 3

Postmodernity creates inequality

Answer 3

society is diffused and fragmented

consumer society and the choice of material goods advertised in the media make individuals feel unequal because they lack things that others appear to have (consumerism)

Question 4

Postmodernists are critical of “meta-narratives” – ideas that aim to explain everything

Answer 4

argue that postmodern society is fragmenting, and inequality has individual meaning

Question 5

Jameson

Answer 5

sympathy with Marxist theory and argue that divisions in society are a product of ‘late capitalism’ but cannot be explained by economic dimensions alone

Question 6

Consumption and style (supermarket)

Answer 6

pick-and-mix society Polhemus
where the existence of multiple identities mean that the old social class, gender, ethnicity and age dimensions of identity and inequality are no longer meaningful (Bennett and Hetherington)

in a postmodern world where the fragmentation of society has led to greater individualisation

Question 7

Cheal

Answer 7

wealth or inequality experienced by families has often been linked to male occupational roles - male breadwinner
increasing numbers of female breadwinners in families, or lone-parent families
Families have diversified, as Weber suggested they would

Inequality is an individual and not a social problem

Question 8

Characteristics of postmodern society

Answer 8

• Ullrich Beck and Anthony Giddens referred to the term “risk society”
• Suggested that people no longer felt safe in the face of economic, environmental and societal change

Pomo argue social change has created postmodern society

Question 9

Baudrillard

Answer 9

• society is based on buying and selling images and signs
• the lines between everyday reality and the media have become blurred (hyper-reality)
• we have lost the power to improve society, if we cannot grasp the reality then we have no power to change it

Question 10

Pakulski

Answer 10

class no longer exists, we are governed by status difference or consumption difference, not class difference = the influence of Weber on postmodernism.

‘class was dead’

Question 11

Criticism of Pakulski

Answer 11

X Sounds like people choose their own class which,

Harriet Bradley, cannot be believed when looking at the real poverty stricken in society

Question 12

How do we study inequality

Answer 12

• there is no such thing as inequality - Inequality is a modernist idea
• Pomo would suggest that people only develop a sense of inequality when the issue is of importance to them for some reason

Question 13

What is social exclusion

Answer 13

• More than income poverty
• Short term for the combination of linked problems
• High crime, unemployment , income/poor housing, family breakdown

Disadvantaged can be transmitted from generation

Question 14

Lister

Answer 14

• the ‘third way’ offers a conditional form of social inclusion
• only the very weakest are offered targeted support, other people must choose to accept it

Question 15

Criticism of ‘the third way’

Answer 15

Criticised for providing middle class voters with a sense that their interests will be cared for by low taxation and strong financial policies, whilst poorer people will be given a sense that something is being done to look after their needs and interests

Question 16

Strengths of postmodernism

Answer 16

• Recognises that society has changed and there are a variety of identities, lifestyle choices and ideas to explain the world – fixed in idea and understanding

Question 17

Weaknesses of postmodernism

Answer 17

X Offers no direct explanation for inequality, denying it exists
X Statistical evidence = divisions between the wealthy and the poor are wider and they appear to be growing 100 people have the same wealth as 18 million (equality trust)
X Notion of social exclusion provides governments with a convenient way of hiding statistics which show that income inequality is growing and very large numbers of certain social groups in British society experience poverty, lacking access to basic human necessities.
X Government benefit = inequality is an individual matter and not a social one?
X Over exaggerate extent to which divisions are no longer significant. Marxists and feminists would be heavily critical