This introductory guide surveys the work of a range of influential contemporary social theorists including Lacan, Baudrillard, Foucault, Said, Harvey and Haug and explains their analyses of current topics such as consumer identity and commodity aesthetics; post-colonial criticism; identity andnarrative; and the general condition of postmodernity.
Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Cultural Studies - Empiric Cultural Studies, grade: 2.0, Ruhr-University of Bochum (European Culture & Economy), course: MA (ECUE), language: English, abstract: End of the 20th century has witnessed sudden emergence of “Identity Culture”. More and more people across the globe are thinking about their identity and origin. Collective identity is gaining more and more importance. Noted Scholar Samuel Huntington writes in his celebrated work „ Kampf der Kulturen“ : „Völker und Nationen versuchen heute, die elementarste Frage zu beantworten, vor der Menschen stehen können: Wer sind wir ?“ Identifying with others, in various different ways, can be extremely important for living in postmodern society. In today’s postmodern times identities are ever changing, overlapping and they are also situation specific. This paper intends to explore the possibility of describing cultural identity emerging in contemporary postmodern world. I begin with conceptualization of the term “Culture”. The main purpose of this work is to deal with cultural identity in postmodern age and hence I have taken liberty to use the words postmodern, postmodernity and postmodernism synonymously. The term postmodern consists of a whole plethora of interpretations and it derives its origin from modernism. Hence I start with description of modernism in chapter two. Thereafter comparative analysis of modernism and postmodernism is presented. Postmodern age is an age of dilemmas. This era has given momentum to identity culture. As mentioned earlier more and more people are worried about their identities and various discourses at various levels are taking place. But simultaneously cultural identity in this era is getting fragmented. Hence discussion in divided two parts namely - identity culture and cultural identity - in postmodern times. I have deliberately restricted my sphere to philosophical and cultural fields.
In stark contrast to previous scholarship about citizenship as a construct, this groundbreaking book covers the full spectrum of literature on citizenship theory, including the state and structure of identity, the individual and the public, and the enduring issues of civic engagement and collective discourse. It examines some of the complex challenges faced by citizens and policy makers and explores the existing procedural and institutional mechanisms that undermine democratic political accountability as well as its legitimation. Drawing from classical conceptions of citizenship in the early Greco-Roman eras to the more contemporary critical social theory and postmodernist contentions, the work casts a wide net that covers complex issues including rights and obligation, the doctrine of state sovereignty and authority, equality, the principle of majority rule, citizen participation in governance, public versus self-interest, ideas of justice, immigration and cultural identity, global citizenship, and the evolution of hybrid communities that challenge traditional notions of state-citizenship identity. With meticulous detail and powerful analysis, author Kalu N. Kalu unceasingly places citizenship as the central thesis of this project, illuminating its intellectual richness on the one hand, and demonstrating the ongoing challenges in both conceptualization and practice, on the other.
Social Postmodernism defends a postmodern perspective anchored in the politics of the new social movements. The volume preserves the focus on the politics of the body, race, gender, and sexuality as elaborated in postmodern approaches. But these essays push postmodern analysis in a particular direction: toward a social postmodernism which integrates the micro-social concerns of the new social movements with an institutional and cultural analysis in the service of a transformative political vision.
More than a guidebook to the postmodernity debate, Paul Lakeland's lively and novel volume clarifies the critical impulses behind the cultural, intellectual, and scientific expressions of postmodern thought. He identifies the issues it presents for religion and for Christian theology. Concentrating on God, Church, and Christ, Lakeland outlines the church's mission to the postmodern world, including a constructive theological apologetics.
Difference Troubles, first published in 1997, examines the implications for social theory and sexual politics of taking difference seriously. It explores the trouble difference makes not only for the social sciences, but also for the people - feminists, queer theorists, postmodernists - who champion difference. Seidman asks how social thinkers should conceptualize differences such as gender, race, and sexuality, without reducing them to an inferior status. This is a wide-ranging and sophisticated discussion of contemporary social theory and sexual politics, presented with Seidman's familiar imagination and clarity. In addition, it argues persuasively for a pragmatic approach to difference troubles in theory and politics.
The issues he explores: Identity and narrative, identity and difference, identity and the unconscious, culture and identity, consumer identity and commodity esthetics, race, ethnicity and nation-ness, post-colonial criticism, the conditions of postmodernity.
Significant to Dunn's critique of poststructuralist and postmodern theories is his application of George Herbert Mead as a means of theorizing identity and difference. The focus on postmodernity, rather than postmodernism grounds his analysis of identity and difference both materially and socially.
Whereas the text of modernity thrived on its rhythms, symbols, and representations of beauty, and above all on its impersonality, postmodernity in the late decades of the twentieth century sought relationships outside the text - those between literature and history, philosophy, psychology, society, and culture. The exploration of such relationships is literary to postmodernity as it is ancillary to modernity."--BOOK JACKET.
This collection of essays addresses the issues and concerns raised by the emphasis on society not as a series of homogeneous interlocking blocks, but as a plethora of different, sometimes overlapping and often conflicting communities. Reflecting, for example, on the experience of the GLC's attempt to create a new "majority of minorities" and on the clash of values and beliefs over "The Satanic Verses," these pieces explore both the opportunities and problems presented by the growing diversity of communities, cultures and identities in contemporary society. Topics covered include: consumerism and the impact of green politics; racism and psychoanalysis; ethics and values; AIDS and citizenship; and feminism and age
