Reconstructing Postmodernism : Critical Debates

by Powell, Jason L.; Owen, Tim

• ISBN13: 9781600216381
• ISBN10: 1600216382
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-04-01
• Publisher: Nova Science Pub Inc

Summary

There has been an array of literature on the notion of 'postmodernism' in social science literature in recent years. This exciting book focuses on three broad continuities: one, debunking the central theoretical tenets of postmodernism with reference to identity, methodology, governance and modernist theory; two, the book engages with current social issues and events in popular culture: for example, film; professional power, masculinity and terrorism; three, the book also rethinks postmodernism in light of under-researched variables of analysis of time and ageing, the 'body', 'biology' and 'choice'.

Table of Contents

Introduction : reconstructing postmodernism
Self-identity and personhood in social analysis: the inadequacies of postmodernism and social constructionism	p. 3
Cognitive relativism : between positivistic and relativistic thinking in the social sciences	p. 15
An excursus in post-postmodern social science	p. 29
Postmodern social theory and sociology : on symbolic exchange with a "dead" theory	p. 41
The postmodern terrorist risk : plus ca change, plus C'est la Meme Chose	p. 61
The perils of uncertainty : reflections on theoretical practice and graduate education	p. 77
Masculinity as a reproduction of traditionalism, feminist reaction, and egalitarianism	p. 89
Film, postmodernism and the sociological imagination : exploring the power of local stories in Southern Korea and Northern England	p. 103
Temporality and old age : a postmodern critique	p. 125
Understanding aging bodies : a postmodern dialogue on bio-medicine, body and cultural representations of identity	p. 141
After postmodernism : towards an evolutionary sociology	p. 153
(Dis)interring postmodernism or a critique on the political economy of consumer choice	p. 167
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.