Late Modernity and Social Change: Reconstructing Social and Personal Life

by Heaphy; Brian

• ISBN13: 9780415281775
• ISBN10: 0415281776
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2007-10-30
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Sometimes social theory can seem dry and intimidating--as if it's something completely apart from everyday life. But in this brilliant new text Brian Heaphy and Jane Franklin show exactly how the arguments of the great contemporary theorists play out against extended examples from real life. Introducing the work of Anthony Giddens, Zygmunt Bauman, Michel Foucault and Jean Baudrillard, the first section examines the merits of the "late modernity" thesis against those of the proponents of "post-modernity". The authors show wide swoop of influence of post-modern thought and how it has changed the way even its opponents think. The second section puts these theories in context by looking at how they play out against key features of contemporary society and culture including work, consumption and the information revolution.

Author Biography

Brian Heaphy is Lecturer in Sociology at Manchester University

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. vi
Introduction	p. 1
Founding narratives of modernity and the logics of social change	p. 16
The deconstructive turn	p. 28
Postmodernity and the cultural turn	p. 50
Late modernity and the reflexive turn	p. 69
Reconstructing self and identity	p. 93
Reflexive relating and intimacy	p. 120
Death, deskilling and life-politics	p. 149
The sociology of reflexivity or reflexive sociology?	p. 169
References	p. 182
Index	p. 188
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