Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM

Browse over 1 million classes created by top students, professors, publishers, and experts.


See full index

Sociology - Paper 1 > Postmodernist Theory > Flashcards

Postmodernist Theory Flashcards

You may prefer our related Brainscape-certified flashcards:
Sociology 101 flashcards
1
Q

Key Terms

A

Pick and mix culture - the ability to choose our identity (reject and accept)
Metanarratives - big stories that explain society, which were relied upon in pre-modernist and modernist societies. Postmodernists believe that you can combine and create your own narratives and explanations (decline in metanarratives in a postmodernist society due to major crisis)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

Key Terms 2

A

Pluralist - Many things to choose in society
Hybridity - Merging of 2 or more things together
Fragmentation - Breakdown into small pieces

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

Key Terms 3

A

Relativity - all things are culturally specific (decline in metanarratives) no wide sweeping claims, things are done differently in different cultures
Media Saturation - 24/7 media - cannot escape it, constant ability to re-shape identity (key to postmodernist society)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

What is postmodernist theory?

A

Means ‘after modernism’.
In the 17th century, when society was modernist, saw change in the way people thought about the world, with many abandoning old religious ways of thinking and began to adopt a rational and scientific thinking mindset. People believed that eventually, this knowledge could be used to solve all the world’s social problems.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

Postmodernist theory pt2

A

Around the mid twentieth century, a number of events triggered a loss of faith in metanarratives of the world, such as religion and science. Some of the events include two world wars, evidence of global warming, a rise in globalization and decline in communist countries. This decline of metanarratives has led to a fundamental shift away from the ideas that formed the basis of a modernist society, and a postmodernist society has emerged as a result.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

Postmodern Society is characterized by the following:

A
  1. Relativity of knowledge - having rejected ‘big stories’, people are confronted with a range of different explanations of the world. Within pluralism, no single type of truth has a special status, and so all are relative and judged on their status.
  2. Fragmentation - The plurality of truth has led to a breakdown of old certainties and characteristics such as gender, social class and ethnicity have become fractures; it is no longer possible to describe identities in terms of these metanarratives.
  3. Hybridity - The breakdown of all-encompassing truths has led to a pick and mix culture; elements of different metanarratives are combined by individuals to create their own lifestyles and identities.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

Postmodern Society is characterized by the following: (cont.)

A
  1. Media saturation - Media is everywhere and we cannot escape it; it gives us access to.a wealth of information within seconds, opening our eyes to a global village helping us to find out about other cultures.
  2. Fluidity - The break-down of certainties necessarily results in a degree of fluidity within culture; whilst in the past, religious belief was fixed, people now change their beliefs to suit what is occurring in their lives at a particular time. Identities are also in a constant state of flux as elements such as sexuality are modified and replaced as people’s lives progress.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

Modernity

A
  • Max Weber
  • Developed in the 18th century as a result of the enlightenment - this is characterised by secularisation, bureaucratisation and rationality; more choice, extension of the social life and growth of business and structures e.g. creation of train timetables allows standardisation of time
  • Evidence of modernity - religion is personal, large organisations support society e.g. 1890 Education Act and use of science to achieve aims
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

Late modernity

A
  • Suggest we do not enter a new era but it is a development of modernity
  • Social structures are losing power but still influence individuals
  • Ulrich Beck - disembedding (detaching from the secure structures due to globalisation and so we are no longer stuck in one place in the world), reflexivity (reflecting and making change)
  • Risk society - there is a lot of risk in disembedding from losing norms etc
  • Giddens - reflexivity
  • Bauman -Liquid modernity
  • Evidence; identity choice, protests, technology /internet
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

Postmodernity

A
  • We are in a new era of society, which is characterised by fragmentation, choice, consumer identity and simulacra / hyperreality
  • Baudrillard
  • Lyotard - decrease in metanarratives and more of a technical identity
  • Evidence - Life-style choices, scripted reality TV and consumer identity
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

Evaluations of the different periods

A

Evaluation of late modernity -
- Rustin - Capitalism is the cause of risk not Technology
- Hirst - Risk Conscious movements are too fragmented to bring change
- Social Structures still hold a lot of power

Evaluation of postmodernity -
- Philo & Miller - Ignores Power inequality that still exists
- Philo & Miller - Ignores the limitations placed by social structures which still exist
- Philo & Miller - by making all truth valid and relative, it excuses the Holocaust etc
- Best & Kellner - Descriptive theory rather than explanatory.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

The modern world

A
  • Industrialisation and goods for mass market
  • Orderly and predictable life
  • Work and social class define identity
  • Independent nation states, national identity and national economy
  • One way mass media - reflective of social reality
  • Rational thought - science and technology could control and improve the natural world
  • Sociological theory/research could improve and explain the social world
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

The postmodern world

A
  • Wider consumer choice. Service economy replaced manual labour jobs. 24/7, flexible working
    As identities become less secure and more fluid, society becomes less predictable
  • Media images, consumption and lifestyle become the major sources of identity. Identity through consumption choices not class.
  • Globalisation and supranational bodies such as EU, UN. Multinational companies produce global products. Local/national identities are eclipsed by global products. Transnational corporations and global media saturate societies = global supermarket
  • Society dominated by global interactive digital media. Media removed from reality. Source of identity and reality (hyperreality)
  • Metanarratives have declined and there no absolute truths. Loss of faith in rational thought and technological progress = risk, doubt and anxiety. Technology is the cause of many problems, not the solution
  • Ideas that just compete against each other. Societies are in a state of constant flux and change. Just individual choices with a mass of individuals. Choice is key to everything.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

Key concepts in postmodernism

A

Hybridity - Merging of two or more cultures to form a new one – e.g. British-Asian

Globalisation - Process of greater interconnectedness between nation states

Diversity - Broader choice of lifestyles, social characteristics, and cultures in society

Disembedded - Physically removed from a situation but still connected through virtual means

Reflexivity - The ability to reflect upon one’s actions and employ social changes

Simulacra - An image of representation of something that is not a real representation

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

Key concepts in postmodernism pt 2

A

Media saturation - Increased use of media in society to the point where media usage is excessive

Risk society - Term suggested by Beck – society is insecure and at risk from man-made changes – this applies to insecurity in employment, relationships, status, finance etc

Bureaucracy - System of governance that controls the organisation of society, creating rules, regulations, and structures

Secularization - The movement away from moral guidance of social institutions to being guided by individual morality

Urbanisation - Movement into towns and cities from rural areas

Industrialisation - Movement from agriculture to industrial production methods

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

Evidence that we live in a postmodern world

A
  • It is argued that the transition between modern and postmodern society occurred in the 1980s
  • Modernist theories were no longer seen as adequate
  • Other modernist theories like structuration also seemed out of date
  • Traditional sources of identity (class, occupation, culture) no longer seemed relevant
  • Globalisation and mass media expansion offered a range of choices regardless of class
  • From a traditional political following (class, economy and community), to single issue politics (climate change, LGBQ+, human rights etc)
  • Social change meant that people’s lives were becoming more insecure and unpredictable

Held et al (2002)
- Globalisation is: the greater interconnectedness of social life and social relationships throughout the world - key part of postmodernism

17
Q

Key features of modernity

A
  • Bell - industrialisation and urbanisation, growth of capitalism and private industry, which developed additional classes such as the middle classes to control the W/C
  • Weber - move towards scientific rationality, secularisation and bureaucracy
  • Modern society - structural approaches, meritocracy, gender, class and ethnic differences, traditional family, nationalism and increased poverty, homelessness and food bank usage
18
Q

Key features of late modernity

A
  • Giddens - era of rapid change
  • Beck - ‘risk society’ death of old certainties and birth of insecurity and risk
  • Bauman - liquid modernity - era of fluidity, flexibility and change
  • Individualisation, increased insecurity, reflexivity, disembeddedness (Giddens) and interconnectedness
  • Late modern society - global crises (risk society), marketisation in education, green crime, Giddens with pure love in the family, Bauman with greater fluidity in family identity, increased serial monogamy
19
Q

Key features of postmodernity

A
  • Simulacra, media saturation, diversity, hybridity and globalisation
  • Postmodern society - distrust of metanarratives in anti-vaccination campaigns, diversity of experience in identity politics, remote working with globalisation, different educational experiences, sociology of personal life in family
20
Q

Simulacra and hyper-reality - Baudrillard

A
  • Reality -> heightened reality (still link to the reality)-> simulacra - something that reflects the reality / based in reality but with no real link -> hyperreality - it is difficult to tell what is real and what is not
  • E.g. Orange -> orange juice -> fanta orange -> chocolate orange
  • Simulacra - artificial creations
  • Hyper-reality - not being able to tell the difference between the simulacra and reality
  • Similar to Lyotard - society is no longer based on the production of material goods but rather on buying and selling knowledge in the form of images and signs - however, unlike signs in past societies, those today bear no relation to physical reality
  • Signs stand for nothing but themselves; they are not symbols of some other real thing - these are known as simulacra e.g. articles about soap opera characters
  • Baudrillard describes this situation as hyper-reality where the signs appear more real than reality itself and substitute themselves for reality
  • However, because signs do not represent anything real they are literally meaningless and Baudrillard is particularly critical of television which he sees as a main source of simulacra and of our inability to distinguish between image and reality
21
Q

The difference between the 3 societies

A

Modern society -
- Metanarratives explain society
- Social class
- Rational thought
- Industrialisation
- Urbanisation
- Bureaucracy
- Secularisation

Late modern -
- Truth is still possible
- Disembedded
- Reflexivity
- Risk society

Postmodern -
- Decline in metanarratives - truth is all relative
- Hyper-reality
- Fragmented
- Media saturated
- Pick ‘n’ mix
- Consumption
- Simulacra
- Identity symbols
- Individualisation

22
Q

Lyotard (1992)

A
  • Knowledge in a postmodern society is just a series of language games or ways of seeing the world
  • Postmodern society has many competing views of truth and this is preferable to modern society where metanarratives claim a monopoly of truth and sometimes seek to impose it by force - Soviet Union for example, North Korea is another
  • Postmodernity allows groups who had been marginalised by modern society, such as ethnic minorities and women to be heard
23
Q

Culture, identity and politics in postmodernism

A
  • Postmodern society has a very different identity and culture from modern society especially with the role of the media in creating hyper-reality
  • The media are all pervading and they produce an endless stream of ever-changing images, values and versions of the truth and so culture becomes fragmented and unstable removing the set of fixed and coherent values shared by members of society
  • There is a bewildering amount of messages that contradict each other and undermine people’s faith in metanarratives and being confronted with multiple versions of the truth people stop believing in any kind of truth - relativity principle
  • Furthermore, given the failure of meta-narratives such as Marxism to give a better society, people lose faith in rational progress
    Identity also becomes destabilised e.g. instead of having a fixed and ascribed class identity, we can construct our own identity by simply changing our consumption patterns by picking and mixing images and lifestyles offered in the media to define ourselves
  • Baudrillard - pessimistic about the postmodern condition; media-created hyper-reality means we no longer know true reality and we have lost the power to improve society as a result; without being able to grasp society, we cannot change it
  • Political activity to improve the world is impossible, and so the central goal of the Enlightenment project is unachievable (achieving progress through true, scientific knowledge) - we can change our identity, but not society
24
Q

Features of postmodernity - Pluralism and Diversity

A
  • Postmodern society is complex, diverse and multicultural - there is no value consensus and no clear structure or system around which society is organised, and it is instead characterised by diversity and difference
  • This ties with the rejection of metanarratives, macro theories do not explain society - there is not a split economy, but a complex one with diverse ownership, self-employment, small business and through online platforms, people can run small multinational companies from their bedrooms
  • Religion, education, family and media do not provide value consensus because people believe different things and in different ways, have different values in their families and consume diverse media; these things do not provide value consensus and they cannot enforce patriarchy or a bourgeois ideology for the same reasons
25
Q

Features of postmodernism - Choice

A
  • Contemporary society is categorised by choice - society is diverse and multicultural but people are not forced to remain within their own ‘subculture’ in this diverse picture, they can choose
  • They can create their own identity and pick and mix from a range of existing identities, making society even more diverse - you can choose your family, religion, school, gender and you do not have to pick an existing label or category, just create your own
26
Q

Features of postmodernism - Relativism

A
  • Postmodernism is often described as relativist as they reject the idea of an absolute truth, or certainty that we can every know the truth
27
Q

Features of postmodernity - Globalisation

A
  • Postmodernists argue that society is undergoing globalisation, where the world becomes more interconnected, and this creates a pluralistic, diverse world characterised by choice and risk.
28
Q

Features of late modernity - constant change

A
  • Giddens described late modernity as a period of constant change, caused by reflexivity and disembedding - much more than in the past, people reflect on themselves, their behaviour and actions and make adjustments in light of those reflections which drives change e.g. #MeToo, BLM
  • Through new media, we are no longer embedded in our local community, or environment, and we can instead be part of a larger global community and culture, which can prompt dramatic change rather than the conservative nature of more insular cultures
29
Q

Features of late modernity - Individualisam

A
  • The age of the individual was a key feature of modernity, but Beck argues that this has accelerated significantly in late modernity
  • We increasingly have to take individual responsibility for our actions, driving further reflexivity
30
Q

Features of late modernity - Risk Consciousness

A
  • Both Giddens and Beck characterise late modern society as being a risk society, with Beck using the term global risk society
  • Environmental disaster, nuclear catastrophe, wars, terrorism and economic crises mean there is a constant risk of some great calamity
  • However, Giddens also points out that humans are rational, logical thinkers who seek solutions to these crises and while postmodernists present a gloomy picture of human adaptability, late modernists are more optimistic
  • Beck writes about people being more risk conscious - politicians try to minimise risk and seek to improve society
31
Q

Do we really live in a postmodern society? - Strengths of postmodernism

A

1) Highlights significant changes with media, identity and culture
2) Recognises that identity construction is fluid and complex, and not based entirely on structural factors
3) Gives insight into contemporary issues such as growing uncertainty, globalisation and changes in the media
4) Challenging metanarratives challenges traditional sociological assumptions and methods

32
Q

Do we really live in a postmodern society? - Weaknesses of postmodernism

A

1) It is just another metanarrative - and is society really postmodern, or is society just continuing from modern society
2) Undermines any idea of progress as all knowledge is equal
3) Assumes people are passive - are we really unable to distinguish between real and fake?
4) Too voluntaristic - we don’t all have the same power to make choices

Sociology - Paper 1 (20 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2024 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions