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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... relations , history and philosophy within which citizenship , rights and social justice can be understood . The series will focus attention on the implications of globalization , the information revolution and postmodernism for the ...
... relation- ships has tended to suppress the free discussion of the ends of modernity . And so for Habermas , the emergence of political groups based around single issues like ecology or animal rights signifies the emergence of an ...
... What Kant presents as the transcendental universality of the moral will , in other words , is a reflection of the amorality of private property relations , for in so far as a person looks into himself for the 2 Culture and Identity.
... relations between truth , beauty and morality , Enlightenment philosophy set about establishing the a priori rules of moral , cognitive - theoretical and aesthetic judgements ( Foster , 1985 , p . 9 ) . This determination to separate ...
... relations . However , unlike Adorno and Horkheimer's account of the failure of the Enlighten- ment project , Habermas ' essay insists that the predominance of techno- scientific control should be conceived in relation to a certain ...
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 |