post-modernism

• pre-modern


  -used religion/god for every explanation

  -didn't change, stayed stable
• modernity 


  -industrialisation & urbanisation

  -identity was fixed

  -based heavily on occupation & class

  -less choice
• globalisation


  -increasing interconnectedness

  -technological change : instant communication across societies

  -transport : travel between societies

  -economic changes : increase in trade & economic inequalities

  -political changes : most important unit of power is nation state
• postmodernity 


  -time of globalisation

  -identity is more fluid

  -social structures have less power over identities & behaviour

  -people have more choice = more diversity

  -international power

  -enlightenment project no longer possible
• the enlightenment project


  -idea that society can progress through the use of human reason (rationality & science) to find out the truth about the world

  -postmodernists argue this is no longer possible
• Foucault & Lyotard - knowledge


  -argue there's no sure foundation of knowledge > no objective criteria to prove theory true or false

  consequences of this :

  > rejection of the Enlightenment Project

  > rejection of accepted knowledge & metanarratives

  -through the rejection of metanarratives, postmodernists take a relativist position

  -argue as there's so many versions of the truth, people don't believe wholeheartedly in any one version
• consequences of having no sure foundations to knowledge


  -rejection of the Enlightenment Project

  -rejection of accepted knowledge & metanarratives
• relativist position


  all accounts of reality are equally valid
• Baudrillard - consumer culture 


  -postmodern age is a world where people respond to images/symbols rather than people, places & objects

  -people consume products in order to construct own identities

  > demonstrating how we're disconnected from reality
• Baudrillard - simulacra 


  -he seems many objects as being completely removed from their grounding in 'reality' in postmodern era

  -media produces an endless stream of ever-changing images, values & versions of the truth > there's no longer a coherent/fixed set of values shared by members of society

  -simulacra : just a symbol, devoid from reality

  -hyperreality : society composed of many simulacrum
• is Baudrillard optimistic or pessimistic about modern society?

  pessimistic
• why is Baudrillard pessimistic about postmodern society?


  -he believes that media-created hyperreality has left us unable to distinguish images from reality

  -means we no longer have the power to improve society > can't even grasp what it's really like

  > Enlightenment Project is no longer possible