Culture and Identity: Critical Theories`Ross Abbinnett brings a keen and subtle philosophical mind to bear on themes and debates that have become commonplace in sociology. This is a sinuously written book which casts new light on pressing contemporary issues. It is required reading for everyone who wants to think seriously and with an open mind about the terrain of the present′ - Keith Tester, Professor of Sociology, University of Portsmouth This incisive and timely book provides a concise and reliable guide to the debate on modernity and postmodernity. In particular the work of Lyotard, Beck, Bauman, Baudrillard, Giddens, Jameson and Derrida is critically reviewed. Culture and Identity provides: a thorough and accessible discussion of the main themes in the modernity-postmodernity debate; a shrewd and penetrating account of how these themes address everyday life; a novel account of how technology is altering our perceptions of the `human′; and a balanced account of the hope for radical politics and radical critique to correct the excesses of capitalism. What emerges most forcefully from the book is the error of dismissing postmodernism as a self-indulgent and ultimately, dangerous piece of ideology. Abbinnett provides a pertinent reminder of the continuing importance of the themes and challenges raised in the `postmodern moment′. |
From inside the book
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... functional , structural or systemic development of human society is the recuperation of the lifeworld as the horizon of rational- dialogical action . Second , there is the claim that postmodernist thought , because of its disregard of ...
... functional space and time in the dynamics of capital accumulation , means that the periodic crises of the world economy are experienced socially and culturally as ' disconcerting and disruptive bouts of space - time compression ' ( ibid ...
... functional ' determination , arise out of dilemmas that are directly con- cerned with the spatial and temporal dynamics of a post - Fordist capitalism . The discourse of progress , consensus and enlightenment , in other words , is not ...
... functional - repressive control . Thus , Michel Foucault's genealogy of penal systems is cited as identifying an increasingly ' behav- iouristic ' imperative in the ordering of social relations : an imperative which , in seeking to ...
... functional integration of social relations is theorized as the uniquely moralizing force , the rational administration of human beings is given an implicit , and ultimately disastrous , priority over the demands of care . It is only ...
Contents
15 | |
25 | |
35 | |
Postmodernism and the Aesthetic | 43 |
Deconstruction and Identity | 53 |
Technology Ideology and the Culture Industry | 73 |
Information Simulation and the Silent Majorities | 96 |
The Postmodern and the Sublime | 112 |
Culture Politics Différance | 125 |
Derrida Fukuyama and the New World Order | 137 |
Science Technology and Catastrophe | 159 |
Capitalism Globalization and Cosmopolitanism | 190 |
Bibliography | 217 |