Postmodern Grand Theories

Credits, references, and bibliography

Who are we and where are we going?

Transition from Industrial to Postindustrial Society (Daniel Bell)

Society--three realms: social structure, polity, and culture

Postindustrial Society : mainly a change in social structure: economy, work, science, and technology

From production to services and information processing (especially health, research, government) Blue-collar work declines ( local copy ). Professional work expands: lawyers, computer, scientists and engineers Theoretical knowledge versus "know-how," innovation based on research, ethical questions (genome, stem cells, etc.) New technologies and their impact--issue of control and predictability (security) "Intellectual technologies" (cybernetics, game theory, information theory) Science, technology, and growth--a symbiotic relationship (university-based)

Work: Farmers and unskilled--semi-skilled and engineers-professionals and scientists Problems dealt with: Extract from nature (primary occupations)--coordinating machines--managing people with information Power: landowners and military-industrialists and business through politicians--scientists and researchers

Culture ( Culturomics ) Dominated by irrationality, self-realization, and self-gratification (versus the rationality of the economy)

Postmodernism, as a cultural reality, challenges the advancement of social structure and the economy.

The possibility of a disjuncture leaves open the onset of revolution

For Bell, the hedonism of a consumer culture must be contained.

Postmodern Grand Theories

Post-modernism (and): (Emergence of the post modern world==> the death of modernist architecture at 3:32 p.m. July 15, 1972 <Lemmert 1990>). Actually, it was probably March 16, 1972.

Modernity (see also: A MODERN SOCIETY? (and) has failed to provide the solution to the problems of life.

"Progress" is not an onward and upward march

Science (positivism) does not have all the answers

Philosophically integrative, yet focus is upon control mechanisms

Cultural debates are intensifying. The promise of the modernist "Individual" and tolerance needs critical reflection

Social Institutions are changing at a rapid rate: Family, Religion, Education, etc.

Post-Modernism Defined

Everyday life expressions of these themes:

Hi-Tech lifestyles Preoccupied with consumer goods and media images The Mass International, "demise of the nation-state" Irrationality of Rationality The impact of continual change. McDonaldization

Increasing Governmentality (And Other Grand Theories)



http://www.kritischestudenten.nl/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/produktbilde_michel_foucault.jpg

Michel Foucault (Read his work)

Grand theories, but not unilineal unfolding of history

Not a search for origins, but analysis at different points in time--raising questions rather than finding answers

Focused on incoherence: internal contradictions

Emphasis on the discontinuities and reversals in history, relativism

Governmentalities (see also): "The practices and techniques by which control is exercised over people." (2, page 219) (additional resources: here and here)

Discipline and Punish (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk9ulS76PW8 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EsEgwYdzlA)

From torture to rules as a means of control Not humanization (internal contradiction), but increased ability to punish . Less negativity (as compared to public torture) Rules can be imposed quite early--preceding behavior (socialization) Rules can be repeatedly applied Rule systems support and reflect rationalization and bureaucratization (efficiency and depersonalization) Generalizable: rules and surveillance over entire population Instruments of Observation and Control (see also) Hierarchical observation Panopticon (see also ) (possibility versus actuality of observation) Disciplinary society Normalizing judgments (what is normal today?) Examinations--checking up and assessing

Increasing Disciplinary Power (from the iron fist to the velvet glove) Punishing has increased Pervasive, universal, and insidious Discipline as "swarming" throughout society: Carceral archipelago (local copy)

Microphysics of power: attempts to resist the exercise of power and control occur at many levels, and constantly restructures the process of control

Madness and Civilization

Deinstitutionalization

Psychotropic drugs

Internalization of control

Grand Theory of Sexuality (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNcQA3MSdIE)

Sex is and was repressed, but Victorianism led to an explosion of discourse on sexuality

This led to more analysis and study of sexuality

And, increasing attempts to exercise power over sexuality Control over individual body and sexual practices Control over the general population: health, life expectancy, etc. "By controlling sex, society was able to control both the individual and the species." (2, page 225) Foucault saw hope in the body, in sexuality, and in pleasure--methods to overcome control attempts.



Queer Theory (see also)

Social and historical construction of sexuality

Stigma and marginalization of LGBT

Concern over identity politics

Non-essentialist--no built-in traits, desires, characteristics .

. Critique of binaries

Pre-ninetennth century--no such thing as sexual identity (as it is known today)

Binaries are mutually linked, one typically inferior

Gender and sex as a performance

Sociological theory must incorporate the study of sex, gender, and sexuality, with a focus on social construction

Foucault and Heterotopias:

Postmodernity as Modernitys Coming of Age (Zygmunt Baumann)

Postmodern Sociology and a Sociology of Postmodernity Fearful of a postmodern sociology: Less concern with formative questions Connection to postmodern culture--irrationality Sociology of Postmodernity: Issues of complexity and unpredictability. Fragmentation--no central goal orientation or administration. Agents and states operate in arenas of ambivalence and uncertainty. Reflexivity Fluidity and change Body (and body cultivation). Seduction as a means of control Primacy of knowledge and information--keys to resources and choice

Learning to Live with Ambivalence (Liquid Modernity) (local copy) (the book) Ambivalence about Postmodernity Problems: regionalism and barbarism Yet tolerance and acceptance Fear of the "void" and draw of community: N eotribalism (acceptance and refuge) Yet, lack of concern and self-centeredness--possibility of cruelty Consumerism is not enough to satisfy our needs Postmodern Ethics Rejection of coercive codes Moral ambivalence No universal morality "One has to be for the Other before it is possible to be with the Other." ( 2 , p. 229) Rejection of complete relativism--there is a need for the center (state, self). Irresolvable Moral Dilemmas "People have full moral choice, but they have it without the guidance of an overarching moral code once promised by moderity....morality...has been privatized." ( 2 , p. 230)



The Rise of Consumer Society, Loss of Symbolic Exchange, and Increase in Simulations

Jean Baudrillard



http://www.spaceandculture.org/uploaded_images/baudrillard-778688.jpg

From Producer to Consumer Society

Consumption as Language

Code (purchasing signs) Needs (no longer the basis of consumption) Hyperconsumption Difference--versus needs (differences are infinite, therefore no end to consumption) 2 , p. 232) The code controls choice and defines "needs" (how, what, where, and when to buy, as well as what we buy means) Consumption has little to do with "reality." It's not so much what we consume, but what "what we consume" means Relate more to objects and settings than to other humans (spend our time in these places, do the work (atm's, etc.), and people there are replicants: "would you like to supersize that?"

From Production to Consumption

Control over consumers

Insure active and regular consumption: advertisin g advertising 2010 , credit cards, spending time consuming or working for the money to consume.

The Loss of Symbolic Exchange and the Increase in Simulations

Consumer Society and the New Means of Consumption

Means of Consumption: Old and New

Means of production--define relationship with material world, define self and relation to others Means of consumption (make consumption possible) New means of consumption (versus old: material, face-to-face, cash, Gemeinschaft) McDonald's , Shopping malls, Superstores (since the 1950s)

Material structures, yet phantasmagoria (dream worlds) designed to enchant and produce hyperconsumption

Creative destruction: clearing the old--eliminating them and simulating them

Dematerializing, too: internet, home shopping network Spectacle Need to manipulate the consumer, to "enchant them, in order to stimulate consumption

I mplosion (destruction of boundaries--new Busch stadium: department store, arcade, and a ball park) As places grow too big--problems, yet online: shop bots

Time and space: Collapsing time periods, gigantic spaces, lack of time references

And, simulations, too, especially online: Second Life The "prosumer" and "prosumption?" The end of consumption (freeganism, permaculture, simple living) ?

Dromology (Paul Virilio) (wikipedia) (Paul Virilio A Discussion by John David Ebert)

Contemporary Applications: The Explosion of Surveillance in Our Lives

Feminism and Postmodern Social Theory (a few notes)

Things in commom:

Who gets to define reality Movement away from traditional concerns in philosphy and social science: decontructing knowledge. And, decontructing gender Reflexivity and inclusionary forces--self challenging and self-critical. Always changing (versus progressing).

Differences:

Maybe not so inclusive (arcane language and and too academic). Denies the process of theorizing just when marginal groups are coing into their own. Radical individulalism versus collective action and liberation. Discourse and narrative rather than material reality and inequality.

Internet Exercises (1)

Exercise 1

Go to the U.S. Census Bureaus website: http://www.census.gov and click on the box labeled E-Stats. Go to the latest E-Commerce Statistics. Then, click on the most recent quarterly e-commerce report and note the e-commerce sales for this quarter. Then go to previous releases and check the e-commerce sales from a comparable quarter in 2001.

What is the estimate of U.S. retail e-commerce sales for the most recent quarter? How much of a percentage increase is this from 2001 Do your findings support the claim that we are living in a postmodern world? Why?

Exercise 2

Go to the following website: http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/usa/incarceration/ Read Human Rights Watchs background report on the prison population in the U.S.

How much has the population of prisoners incarcerated for drug offenses increased since 1980? What group is disproportionately represented as part of the prison population? Use Michel Foucaults concept of a carceral archipelago to interpret these trends. From Foucaults perspective, what other information about crime and prisoners would be useful to know? Can you find it on the Internet? Does it support or refute his conclusions?

Annotated Weblinks

Contemporary Philosophy, Critical Theory, and Postmodern Thought: http://carbon.ucdenver.edu/~mryder/itc/postmodern.html A website that discusses how postmodernism has influenced art, architecture, music, and literature. The Po-Mo Page: http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/pomo.html Postmodern Culture: http://www.iath.virginia.edu/pmc/contents.all.html Museum of Weird Consumer Culture: http://www.indiana.edu/~wanthro/museum.htm Baudrillard on the Web/Project Baudrillard: http://intermargins.net/intermargins/TCulturalWorkshop/academia/scholar%20and%20specialist/Baudrillard/Baudrillard%20on%20the%20Web.htm Foucault Websites/Resource Centers: http://foucault.info/ and http://rauli.cbs.dk/index.php/foucault-studies/index Social Theory for Fans of Pop Culture: http://www.theory.org.uk/index.htm George Ritzer: http://www.socy.umd.edu/facultyprofile/Ritzer/George and http://www.georgeritzer.com/ The Unwinnable War: An Interview with Zygmunt Bauman: http://www.opendemocracy.net/globalization-vision_reflections/modernity_3082.jsp CTheory: http://www.ctheory.net

quiz

Works Cited

1. Much of this page comes from the "Instructor's Manual" to accompany Contemporary Sociological Theory and Its Classical Roots: The Basics, Second Edition, George Ritzer, Mcgraw-Hill, 2007. The Instructor's Manual was prepared by James Murphy, University of Maryland, College Park and Todd Stillman, Fayetteville State University. These excerpts are from chapter 9.

2. Ritzer, George. 2007/2010/2013. Contemporary Sociological Theory and Its Classical Roots: The Basics. 2nd/3rd/4th editions. St. Louis: McGraw-Hill

URL: http://www.umsl.edu/~keelr/ 3210/3210_lectures/post_modern .html

Owner: Robert O. Keel: rok@umsl.edu

Last Updated: Friday, August 14, 2015 9:34 AM