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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... judgements arises from the communi- cative structure of language : for as linguistically competent beings , each of us is able to recognize how the structural organization of social relation- ships has tended to suppress the free ...
... judgement in matters of civic responsibility , and to remain faithful to the universal ends of freedom , equality ... judgements about the morality of its actions must remain entirely arbitrary . What Kant presents as the transcendental ...
... judgements ( Foster , 1985 , p . 9 ) . This determination to separate everyday experience from the disciplinary specialisms of aesthetics , morality and science is , for Habermas , the beginning of an impoverishment of the public sphere ...
... attempt to determine the a priori rules of moral , aesthetic and cognitive - theoretical judgements . Thus , in so far as the demand for abstract classification establishes the conditions for the dominance of expert 7 Introduction.
... judged by moral criteria , and that ' my ' contribution to the chain of functional or bureau- cratic tasks which produce a particular outcome ( whatever this outcome might be ) , should be assessed only in terms of its competence and ...
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 |