globalisation, modernity and postmodernity

Question 1

modern society characteristics (4)

Answer 1

The nation state - bounded territory ruled by powerful centralised state whose population shares same language and culture.
Capitalism - economy of modern societies is capitalist based on private ownership of means of production and use of wage labourers. Nation state regulates capitalism and maintains conditions under which it operates - lash and Urry - organised capitalism
Rationalionality, science and technology - rational ways of thinking dominate and influence of religious explanations decline.
Individualism - tradition, custom and ascribed status becomes less important as a basis for our actions.

Question 2

changes that have brought about globalisation (4)

Answer 2

Technological changes - satellite communications, the internet and global television networks have helped to create time/space compression - beck - risk society
Economic changes - becoming a weightless economy
Political changes - undermined power of the nation tate. Ohmae - we now live in a borderless world where TNCs have more power
Changes in culture and identity - we now live in a global culture where western owned media companies spread western culture to the rest of the world.

Question 3

Postmodernity

Answer 3

Major intellectual movement which emerged in the 1970s based on unstable, fragmented, media saturated global village where image and reality are indistinguishable.
Lyotard - knowledge is just a series of language games or ways of seeing the world. Postmodernists allow groups who had been marginalised by modernity to be heard.
Foucalt - a discourse is a set of ideas that have become established as knowledge / a way of thinking and speaking about the world. A discourse is power / knowledge. Postmodernists argue that there are no foundations to knowledge - anti foundationalism. This view causes the enlightenment theory to be dead, and theories such as marxism to be viewed as meta-narratives.
Meta-narratives have helped to create oppressive totalitarian states that impose thor version of the truth onto people. Postmodernists take a relativist position - all views are true for those who hold the,.
Baudrillard - society is no longer based on production of goods but rather on the form of images and signs which stand for nothing but themselves - simulacra. This is caused by hyperreality where the signs appear more real than reality.

Question 4

give two criticisms of postmodernism

Answer 4

Marxism - Ignores power and inequality, claims that we freely construct our identity through consumption overlooks effect of power.
Lyotard’s theory is self defeating - why should we believe a theory that claims that no theory has the truth.

Question 5

theories of late modernity

Answer 5

Rapid change we are witnessing is the continuation of modernity itself
Something important is happening and features of modernity are becoming intensified
Theories of modernity are still applicable to today’s society
Giddens - we have gone through a process of disembedding where we no longer need to have face to face interaction in order to interact. Tradition and costumes have become less important forcing us to become reflexive - monitor, reflect on and modify our actions.
Beck - we live in a risk society, today we face manufactured risk resulting from human activity such as globalisation and global warming.
Sees late modernity as a period of growing individualisation - as a result, risk consciousness becomes increasingly important to our culture.

Question 6

give two criticims of beck

Answer 6

Rustin - it is capitalism with its pursuit of profit at all costs whic is the source of risk, not technology.
Hirst - rejects beck’s view that movements such as environmentalism will bring about significant change because they are too fragmented.

Question 7

marxist theories of postmodernity

Answer 7

Jameson and harvey - today’s society has moved from modernity to postmodernity
marxists regard it as the product of the most recent stage of capitalism
Harvey - capitalism is a dynamic system which constantly develops new tech / organisation to make products.
Postmodernity arose out of the capitalist crisis of 1970s which saw the end of the long economic boom that had lasted since 1945
This crisis gave rise to a new regime of accumulation which harvey describes as flexible accumulation - involves use of information, technology, expanded service and finance sector and requirements for workers to be flexible to fit worker’s needs.
Changes brought out many cultural characteristics of postmodernity - production of customised products for niche markets, switching of production from one product to another.
Turned leisure, culture and identity into commodity
Jameson - presents more developed form of capitalism as it commodifies virtually all aspects of life
Harvey - leads to another feature of postmodernity - compression of time and space.