Sociology: Postmodernism

-These risks occur in rapidly changing everyday life in social institutions like the family, as seen in things like rising divorce rates and the growing diversity of personal relationships; they can also be seen in the failings or abuse of so-called 'scientific and technological progress' in modernity, such as environmental pollution, climate change, nuclear accidents, genetically modified crops and foods, avian flu, E. coli, MRSA, C. difficle and other antibiotic-resistant superbugs.

-These risks from science are different from the natural disasters and plagues of the past which were beyond human control, as many are generated by progress itself.

-In late modernity, these risks have higher chances of spinning out of control, for example climate change; the unsustainability of the wasteful throwaway society; the safe disposal of hazardous waste; nuclear accidents and risks of nuclear warfare; nuclear, chemical and biological weapons used by terrorist groups; and global crime networks.

-Such risks are often beyond the control of individual nation-states.

-While he recognises science still carries risks of making things worse, it also has the capacity to make things better and control or reduce these new risks - and that is a feature of modernity.

-He shares with Giddens the idea of reflexivity, and suggests we are living in a period of reflexive modernity, as people, institutions, and governments need to think and reflect more about risks today, work out how to resolve problems, and therefore change society.

-People have lost trust in the capacity of governments and scientists to manage risks, and they consequently make more individualised choices and take decisions about the identities and lifestyles they wish to adopt formed around awareness of the risks their choices involve.

-This reflexivity carries within it the modernist hope of improving society and the lives of individuals, albeit with greater risks than ever before.

-This sociologist (1990), from a late modernist perspective, calls this disembedding.

In 2006, he stated, 'much of our world has become a sort of make-believe universe in which we are responding to media images rather than to real persons or places', as shown by people who write to character in television soaps, imagining they are real.

-For example, in Coronation Street in 1998, the character Deirdre Barlow was sent to prison in the show for a crime she did not commit.

-A media-fuelled grassroots campaign began, pleading with Granada Television to 'free the Weatherfield One'.

-The real-world home secretary even involved the Prime Minister, who, with only a touch of irony, attempted to intervene in this unreal world on Deirdre's behalf.

Evaluation of Postmodernism:

-In 1991, 2006 and with Sutton in 2013, he doesn't dispute that the changes in society that postmodernists identify have occurred - such as globalisation, the declining power of nation-states and the growing diversity of identities, social movements, cultures and ways of life.

-He accepts we live in what he calls a 'runaway world' and a 'risk society' marked by new risks and uncertainties, and growing individualism, in which neither people nor institutions can any longer take for granted traditional ways of doing things.

-However, he says that these changes are a continuation of modern society in an intensified form, and have not brought us into a new era of postmodernity, but into what he calls late modernity or high modernity, which requires us to adapt, but not abandon, traditional sociological theories.

-He sees late modernity as characterised by what he calls social reflexivity - meaning the knowledge we gain from society can affect the way we act in it (much as the interpretivists say).

-In late modernity, reflexivity grows in importance, as individuals and social institutions face greater uncertainty in a world in which traditional established customs and values have weakened, and no longer provide clear guidance on behaviour and life choices.

-Everything is unstable and changing rapidly, and life becomes full of risks, like nuclear accidents, economic crisis, climate change and environmental pollution.

-People are constantly having to reflect on and reassess what they do and how they do things, and to think about or reflect on the circumstances in which they live their lives, and weigh up the risks they face when they make their choices.

-In late modernity, reflexivity for individuals focuses on personal freedom and fulfilment as people establish goals for what he calls their 'life projects'.

-This social reflexivity gives people and institutions a greater capacity to act and plan rationally to change and improve the world, which is an element of modernity.

-That life in the postmodern era is so dominated by media imagery that it has become what he calls 'media-saturated'.

-The mass media used to more or less reflect some basic reality, but media images now dominate and distort the way we see the world.

-He suggests the media presents what he calls simulacra, images which appear to reflect events in the real world but have no basis in reality, and which are viewed simultaneously across the globe.

-Even images of real events are so distorted and distanced from reality that they actually replace reality.

-For example, the reality of a missile hitting its target is not shown to a viewer, but a simulacrum of the real event.

-Laser technology and video reportage have eliminated the blood, the suffering and the corpses from war, and the TV news presents a sanitised version of conflicts.

-Wars become media-constructed spectacles, which have such an air of unreality about them that we are unable to distinguish them from Hollywood movies or video games.

-He calls this distorted view of the society which is actually created and defined by the media 'hyperreality', with the media image of an event becoming more real than the reality it is meant to be depicting, as it tries to make viewers feel they are experiencing an 'event'.

-Some celebrities, for example, are famous, not for doing anything, but for no other reason than being made famous by the media.

-That as postmodernism societies are characterised by growing individualism, there is now 'the end of the social' - people can now form their own identities - how they see and define themselves and how others see and define them - and they can be whatever they want to be.

-Postmodern society involves a media-saturated consumer culture in which individuals are free to pick 'n' mix and transform identities and lifestyles chosen from a limitless range of constantly changing consumer goods and leisure activities, which are available from across the globe.

-It has highlighted some important cultural changes, particularly in the areas of the media, culture and identity.

-It emphasises that the construction of identity has become a more fluid and complex process, with people having more choices to pick 'n' mix identities based on consumer lifestyles and global media imagery - and cannot be reduced to simply a response to social structural factors.

-It provides insight into most contemporary social changes, such as growing risk and uncertainty, globalisation, and the growing power of the media.

-In challenging sociological metanarratives, it has perhaps encouraged sociologists to reflect more on some of their assumptions, how they set about their research, and the meaning of some contemporary social changes.

-It is all criticism, and since it seeks no knowledge or vision as any better than any other, it lacks any values or vision for improving society; it undermines any idea of progress, and in a world with widespread poverty, inequality and injustice, this is in effect ignoring a range of diverse and serious social problems.

-It over-emphasises the influence of the media, and tends to assume people are passive, and easily duped and manipulated by them. People are perfectly able to make judgements about what is real and what is not, and are aware that the media do not always, or even often, provide the truth about the world.

-It exaggerates the scale of social change, such as that cultural distinctions are blurred, and that there is a global culture. Cultural tastes are still strongly influenced by class, gender and ethnicity, and national cultures and identities are still strong.

-It is too voluntaristic in that it assumes that all individuals are free to act as they wish and can create, pick and choose and change identities at will. It ignores differences in power, and the existence of widespread social inequality. Such social structural factors still exert influences. For example, people are still constrained by economic factors, which influence their consumption and related consumer lifestyles. Class, gender and ethnicity are still major defining characteristics in contemporary societies.

-Postmodernism is itself a metanarrative, and if metanarratives and absolute truths are dismissed by postmodernists, then it has, in effect, dismissed itself as having to say that is any more valid than anything else.

-Whereas in postmodern society, she suggests identities become less certain and less predictable, more fluid and fragmented, and based more on choice than constraints of social structural factors - there is fragmentation of identities.

-She argues that new identities are created by globalisation, bringing different cultural groups into contact.

-People now adopt different identities based on consumer lifestyles to meet the diversity in their lives - they no longer identify with class alone, but with ethnicity, gender, disability, race, religion, nationality, music, fashion designer labels, dress, sport and other leisure activities - they can pick 'n' mix to create whatever identities they wish.

-He claims, for example, that changes like globalisation, rapid cultural change, the growth of consumerism and the individualisation of identity reflect capitalism opening up new markets and new sources of profits in a global economy.

In 1992, this sociologist stressed that society is now in such a state of constant change that it is unpredictable, and is marked by chaos and uncertainty - a state he referred to as 'liquid modernity' - in which social structures like the nation-state, the family and social class are breaking down.

-Life in postmodern society resembles a shopping mall, where people can stroll around consuming whatever they like - trying out, constructing and changing whatever identities they choose.

-People buy goods not for their usefulness, but as identity symbols for the image and the impression of themselves they wish to project to others.

-In this postmodern pick 'n' mix consumer society, people can become whatever they want to be, adopting lifestyles and identities built around the almost unlimited choice of leisure activities and consumer goods available in what has become a globalised consumer market.

-Metanarratives are just myths (the 'myth of truth'), and there are no certain or absolute truths about the world.

-Every question has an infinite number of answers, and all forms of knowledge are equally valid.

-For example, scientific theory is no more valid than knowledge provided by New Age beliefs and religions.

-There is a loss of faith in certainty, rational thought, and scientific and technological progress of modernism.

-These are replaced by risk, doubt, uncertainty and anxiety.

-He described postmodernism as being 'an incredulity towards metanarratives'.

-He links metanarratives being myths to sociological theories, arguing that because society is now changing so constantly and so rapidly, societies can no longer be understood through the application of general theories or metanarratives.

-Metanarratives, which are 'big theories' like Marxism of functionalism, seek to explain society as a whole, but these no longer apply according to postmodernists because society has become fragmented into so many different groups, interests and lifestyles that are constantly changing that society is essentially chaotic.

-He also suggests postmodern societies are characterised by growing individualism; there is now only a mass of individuals, with few social bonds connecting them, forming their identities through individual choices in education, health, their personal relationships, lifestyle and the consumer goods they buy.