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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... responsibility , and the established structures of social , cultural and economic recognition . In general , ' post - Enlightenment ' philosophy has characterized this relationship in terms of the ' performativity ' of the subject ...
... responsibility from the level of moral culture established in bourgeois civil society ( Kant , 1991 , pp . 54-60 ) . ' His claim is that once human beings have reached the point at which they are able to exercise their sovereign reason ...
... responsibility . For Hegel , then , the establishment of civil society as the sphere of bourgeois property rights demands that we confront the violent individualism that arises from the unfettering of desire from the restrictions of ...
... responsibility within the Western philosophical tradition ( love , friendship , obligation , autonomy ) . We can , however , begin to make sense of Levinas by examining what is the key relationship in his writing : the relationship ...
... responsibility , is the source of a demand which precedes every moral , legal - contractual or economic organization of duty . The very possibility of ' inter - human relationships ' therefore , depends upon this openness of my selfhood ...
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 |