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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... lifeworld . What is required of a critical theory of modernity therefore , is ' an illuminating furtherance of the lifeworld processes of achieving self - understanding ' ; an illumination of the very processes of questioning ...
... lifeworld functioning as a sphere of autonomous communicative action . As the ' non - objective whole [ of intersubjective experience ] which ... evades the grasp of theoretical objectification ' , Habermas claims that the lifeworld ...
... lifeworld ) ; an engagement in which philosophy would function to clarify the social , ethical and political consequences of technocratic organization . Two related issues emerge from this attempt to establish the conditions of rational ...
... lifeworld by scientific rationality , the ' entropetal ' tendency of late - capitalist econo- mies , and the difficulty of extending moral sentiments to those who live within the ' grazing fields ' of these economies - the so - called ...
... make the social world conform to the dictates of calculation and reflexivity . What is important here , is that for Lash , the very possibility of organizing the lifeworld through the cognitive demands 32 Culture and Identity.
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 |