Postmodernism

Question 1

Chaos, uncertainty and collapse of social structures

Answer 1

Bauman stresses society is now in state of constant change that is unpredictable and it is ‘liquid modernity’ in which social structures are breaking down. Idea of family is absurd as loads of different types

Question 2

Globalization

Answer 2

Nation-state and national differences less significant in people’s lives + world becoming increasingly interconnected.

Question 3

Disembedding

Answer 3

Giddens (1990)

Peoples lives no longer rooted in and confined in local contexts, but influenced by global framework.

Question 4

Metanarratives & ‘myth of truth’

Answer 4

Because society changing so constantly and rapidly, society can no longer be understood through application of general theories or metanarratives

Question 5

Choice, identity and consumption

Answer 5

Postmodernists believe there are few of the social constraints on people that structuralist approaches have identified. Lyotard suggests postmodern societies characterised by growing individualism.

Question 6

Simulacra

Answer 6

Images or reproductions and copies which appear to reflect things in the real world but have no basis in reality

Question 7

Hyperreality

Answer 7

View of world which is created and defined by media, with image of an event more real than the event is meant to be depicting

Question 8

Pick’n’mix identities

Answer 8

Postmodern society involves the search for satisfaction of media-created desires, and pressures to consume, with individual behaviour no longer predominately formed by gender, class or ethnicity. New identities created by globalization- can pick and mix whatever identities they want.

Question 9

You are what you buy

Answer 9

Bauman- postmodern society resembles a shopping mall- people consume what they want.

Question 10

Strengths of postmodernism

Answer 10

1. Highlighted important culture changes
2. Emphasises construction of identity more fluid
3. Challenges sociological metanarratives
4. Insight into contemporary social changes e.g growing risk and uncertainty

Question 11

Criticisms of postmodernity

Answer 11

1. All criticism- little insight
2. Over-emphasises influence of media
3. Exaggerates scale of social change
4. Postmodernism itself is a metanarrative

Question 12

Beck: risk society and reflexive modernity

Answer 12

Theorist of late modernity, suggests there is a new phase of modernity-‘the second modernity’ which he calls reflexive modernity. High levels of uncertainty and risk make ‘risk society’. Rapidly changing social institutions seen as rising divorce rates and growing diversity of relationships.

Question 13

When was the transition from modernity to postmodernity?

Answer 13

1980’s

Modernist social theories like marxism and functionalism unable to provide adequate explanations