Postmodernism Key Terms

Question 0

Duality of structure

Answer 0

Notion that people both make society and are strongly influenced by it

Question 1

Agents

Answer 1

Gidden’s term for people

Question 2

High modernity

Answer 2

Gidden’s term for late modernity

Question 3

Hyperreality

Answer 3

The idea that we live in a world that is increasingly perceived and experienced via the media

Question 4

Individualisation

Answer 4

A decline in accepting socially approved roles and an increasing stress on personal choices

Question 5

Late modernity

Answer 5

A term to describe contemporary society, in which traditional and social groupings, economic organisation and culture have all changed so profoundly that traditional sociologists explanations no longer true

Question 6

Ontological security

Answer 6

Idea that people want to believe there is some reality that is beyond them in society, giving them the psychological confidence to engage in interaction

Question 7

Postmodern

Answer 7

Different perspective on contemporary

Question 8

Modernity

Answer 8

A period in history with specific ways of thinking largely based on scientific rational thought

Question 9

Reflexive modernism

Answer 9

Idea that risk avoidance becomes a major factor in social organisation

Question 10

Reflexive modernisation

Answer 10

Idea that risk avoidance becomes a major factor in social organisation

Question 11

Reflexivity

Answer 11

Gidden’s term for the ability to perceive yourself as others see you and create your own identity

Question 12

Risk society

Answer 12

Beck suggests that contemporary societies are best characterised as ones where people are aware that they face complex risks that aren’t open to individual control

Question 13

Sign objects

Answer 13

Baudrillad’s term for the notion that we buy items to express ourselves, not their function

Question 14

Simulacrum (plural simulacra)

Answer 14

Media images that have no basis in reality, but which people increasingly model their behaviour upon

Question 15

Structuration theory

Answer 15

Term used for Gidden’s theory which seeks to combine both structural and social action theories

Question 16

Transformative capacity

Answer 16

Ability of people to change society

Question 17

Transgress

Answer 17

To cross accepted academic boundaries

Question 18

Meta narrative

Answer 18

Big story or theory which explains and justifies something-eg. Scientific theories, political ideologies and religions are seen by postmodernists as meta narratives

Question 19

Stimulation a

Answer 19

Signs and images which have no relationship with reality

Question 20

Anti-foundationalism

Answer 20

The argument that there are no clear, indisputable foundations to knowledge

Question 21

Anti-totalisation

Answer 21

Argument that there are no general theories which reveal and explain the true meanings of things

Question 22

Anti Utopianism

Answer 22

Argument that knowledge has not been used to create a utopia-a perfect society. Instead, it has been used to exert power over others

Question 23

Deconstruction

Answer 23

Breaking down or a taken for granted subject to uncover the assumptions within it

Question 24

Discourse

Answer 24

The linguistic framework within which discussion takes place

Question 25

Gaze

Answer 25

A postmodernism concept which refers to a particular way of seeing an issue, people or place
Applied to both physical and social worlds

Question 26

Narrative

Answer 26

An accepted explanation or theory for some occurrence

Question 27

Relativity

Answer 27

The idea that there is no fixes truth out there waiting to be found. All knowledge is relative to a particular situation