Week 8 : Post Modernity and society Flashcards
Which features of post-modernism suggest Strinati ?
- Breakdown of the distinction between culture and society
- An emphasis on style over substance
- Breakdown of the distinction between high art and popular culture
- Confusions over time and space
- Decline in metanarratives
What is modernity ?
“the social, economic, political and technological developments that have characterized the transition from traditional (premodern) to advanced (modern) civilizations” Laughey
Postmoderism: Propositions
- The rational-linear modern era is passing
- There are no longer any reliable large organizing ideas about culture and society
- There are no fixed cultural values
- Experience and reality are illusory and ephemeral
- The new qualities in culture are novelty itself, pastiche, humour and shock
- Commercialcultureispostmodernculture
According to Baudrillard, what are the Three Orders of Simulation ?
Signification : The image is a clear copy or representation of the real and clearly recognized as such
Reproduction : Distinctions between the image and its representation become blurred between representation and its underlying reality
Simulation :
• Representation precedes and determines the real. (inverse)
• There is no reality underneath it yet the images are signifiers of something real.
• Creates ‘hyperreality’ : The generation by models of a real without origin or reality
What is disneyland according to Baudrillard ?
Disneyland is an example of hyperreality, this hyperreality is the product of ‘simulacra’; simulations which have no reality but become the reality.
Baudrillard argues that Disneyland can be seen as a miniaturized America
What is Bell’s view of progress (in a post-industrial society) ?
‘A post-industrial society is based on services . . . what counts is not raw muscle power or energy, but information’
What are Webster’s 5 categories of definition ?
- Technological • Economic
- Occupational • Spatial
- Cultural
Webster : What are the Limitations of a Technological definition ?
Is IT really key, is it different to the Electricity Age? (note: InfoSociety [IS] concept predates the Internet).
– Are “old” media part of ICTs and IS or not? – Unhelpful to describe a whole society by
reducing it to its means of production.
– Technically determinism - implies that the technology determines the society, rather than vice versa.
Webster : What are the Limitations of Economic definitions ?
– Collapse of Internet businesses and troubles in Telcom - “old-industry” commodities are still essential (people cannot live on info alone!)
– Are the categories of relations of production, no longer relevant? (For eg. neoliberal capitalism, social-democratic capitalism, state socialism, etc.?)
– Doesn’t distinguish useless from economically valuable information.
Webster : What are the Limitations of Occupational definition ?
• Limitations:
– Mining, industrial and agricultural work is re- located in the Third World, (though increasingly low-level info work is also).
– Surely, information has always been a factor in all jobs.
– Is a tour-bus driver in the information sector or not? The concept is fuzzy.
Webster : What is spatial definition ?
Space and time constraints are overcome by information networks (Manuel Castells)
• Information nodes and hubs (eg. Wall Street stock exchange) determine the state of the global economy
• Interconnectedness and interdependence is due to the speed and spread of information flows.
Webster : What are the limitations of spatial definition ?
– There have long been linkages, eg. global post and telecoms - what’s so new that we need a new name to describe society?
– How much really has space & time shrunk?
• Increasing congestion on info networks,
• Increasingly congestion in terms of physical movement (airports, cities).
– So is it convincing to proclaim an Info Society by claiming that Info Networks have negated space and time?
Webster : what is cultural definition ?
- There is now a ubiquitous presence of information in our society.
- Previous generations were not exposed to brands in the same way as today.
- Huge mass of info we see and hear daily defines & shapes our self-identities.
- It affects our politics, public life, politics, clothes, tastes, aspirations and dreams.
Webster : What are the limitations of cultural definition ?
- Does this ubiquity deserve neutral label of “Information” Society? Why not “Entertainment”, or “Commercial Images” Society”?
- Does the term “cultural imperialism” fall away? Is our imagined image of Information Society Times Square Broadway! What about contestation around cultural dominance?
- Paradox of more info,less meaning.
Who wrote “The rise of the Network society” ?
Manuel Castells
