Theory and Methods- Modernity and Postmodernity Flashcards
What does modernity refer to?
The industrial world that began to emerge in Western Europe in the late 18th century
What did modernity bring about? (3 points)
Mass production
Urbanisation
State bureaucracy
What is thinking like in modernity? (3 points)
Ordered, rational and scientific
What was seen as the answer in modernity?
Science rather than religion
What do modernist sociological theories aim to do?
To investigate the world scientifically and explain why societies have evolved to be the way they are, and why they’re arranged in the way they are
What are modernist theories?
Structuralist theories such as Marxism and functionalism
What are modernist theories also called?
Metanarratives (stories that make sense of other stories)
What are metanarratives?
Big, all-encompassing theories that try to find certain answers to questions
What do modernist theories like Marxism claim?
A monopoly of truth
What do postmodernists argue?
Society has progressed from modernity
How has work changed according to postmodernists?
Work has become more flexible and service industries have partly taken over from manufacturing industries
How has consumption changed according to postmodernists?
There’s an emphasis on consumption of cultural products
How have culture and roles changed according to postmodernists?
There’s a pluralism of culture and roles- people interpret society and their own identities in different ways according to the circumstances they’re in
How has globalisation caused a change in society according to postmodernists?
It has affected both production and communication which has made boundaries between states less important
What are the three ways that globalisation has changed society?
- Globalisation of consumption and culture
- Technology has improved communication between countries
- A more global economy with many transnational corperations
What do postmodernists argue about how sociology has moved?
Sociology has moved into a time when metanarratives can’t answer all the questions about the social world
What do postmodernists say about theories in today’s society?
There’s a whole range of competing theories out there which all have something to say about society
Why do postmodernists argue that there are many theories?
No one theory can claim a monopoly of the truth
What is a relativist approach?
All versions of the truth are true for the people who believe in them
What does Lyotard argue?
Sociology moving to a new time has important consequences for our understanding of language as instead of one overall language of words and their set meanings, there is just a series of ‘language games’
What does language games mean?
The meaning of a word depends on the way someone uses it
What does Baudrillard say about postmodern society?
Postmodern society is more about consumption than production
What does Baudrillard focus on?
How we consume signs
Why does Baudrillard argue that signs don’t relate to real things in postmodern society?
Because we have no agreed definition of what is real any more- we consume these signs (‘simulacra’) even though they’re actually meaningless