Synopses & Reviews
This volume explores the currently dominant notion of postmodernity, both in the sense of a historical phase that succeeds modernity, and as a form of knowledge critical of modernist thought. It contains essays from outstanding thinkers in anthropology, history, gender studies, philosophy and political philosophy and sociology, and investigates the political outcomes in the shift from modernity to postmodernity. A special feature of the volume is its focus on the changing social relationships and identities of class, nation, gender and kinship.
Synopsis
Essays on postmodernity from outstanding thinkers in a wide range of academic fields.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements; Notes on contributors; 1. Introduction: postmodernity and the political James Good and Irving Velody; Part I. Modernity and Vicissitudes: 2. Parvenu and pariah: heroes and victims of modernity Zygmunt Bauman; 3. Private and public in 'late modern' democracy Geoffrey Hawthorn and Camilla Lund; 4. Modernity and disenchantment: some reflections on Charles Taylor's diagnosis Quentin Skinner; 5. Postmodernism and 'the end of philosophy' David Cooper; Part II. The Critique of Modernist Political Thought: 6. Antinomies of modernist political thought: reasoning, context and community Raymond Plant; 7. Master narratives and feminist subversions Diana Coole; 8. In different voices: deliberative democracy and aestheticist politics Judith Squires; Part III. Technology and the Politics of Culture: 9. Technology, modernity, politics Herminio Martins; 10. Surrogates and substitutes: new practices for old? Marilyn Strathern; 11. Postmodernism, the sublime and ethics Roy Boyne.