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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... significance of post- modernist ideas like the decentring of the subject , the fracturing of knowledge and the dispersal of the social bond . I will argue that what these ideas contribute to our understanding of the ' place ' of the ...
... significance remains hidden in the play of acquisitiveness and desire . Ultimately , however , the immanence of the universal becomes explicit in the hard necessity of justice and the law : the very possibility of exercising the rights ...
... significance which Hegel attributes to it : the ethical , aesthetic and political ideals through which each individual identifies his or her place within the totality of the state , are reduced to simulacra which misrepresent the ...
... significance of postmodernist theory and culture , in other words , is established on the grounds that the historical ( geo - economic ) conditions for the emergence of postmodern culture have been comprehensively described . As such ...
... significance of postmodern art and culture is that he comes too close the kind of ' fusion ' with the ephemerality of postmodern aesthetics which characterizes Baudrillard's writing on ' simula- tion ' ( ibid . , pp . 351-2 ) . Part 1 ...
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 |