Social Theory and the Postmodern

Bibliographic Data

ID20071113
AuthorsStephen Crook (corresponding author)
Year2001
Pages308-323
Publication date2001-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueHandbook of Social Theory (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherSAGE Publications Ltd (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.4135/9781848608351.n24
OpenAlexW2498720745
ISBN9781848608351
LanguageEN
Citations received6

[Extract] The idea of the postmodern is no longer a novelty in social theory. Themes that had been the recondite concerns of an avant-garde in the 1980s and exploded into an intellectual crazecum-publishing bonanza in the early 1990s are now part of the standard repertoire of social theory and cognate disciplines. Undergraduate students in cultural studies and sociology learn to distinguish the postmodern from other theoretical ‘frameworks’ or ‘perspectives’, ably assisted by the textbooks, readers and websites now available. At the same time, the idea of the postmodern sits at the heart of contemporary ‘culture wars’, where it is attacked variously as the bearer of cognitive relativism, ethical nihilism, political quietism, aesthetic triviality and historical anachronism, The question arises, now that the postmodern has become both such a familiar and such a contentious part of the intellectual landscape, of how we should assess its significance for social theory. The assessment developed in this chapter can be summarized in four linked propositions

Epistemology · Postmodernism · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Philosophy · Psychology · Social and Cultural Dynamics

Tools

Open DOI