Postmodernizing (Macro)sociology

The Sociological Review, 2008

As its title suggests, this paper explores certain directions a specifically postmodern sociology (rather than say a sociology of postmodernism) might take. It reinterprets Gouldner's prescient warnings of a crisis in 'academic' sociology as an expression of despair within modem sociology. In particular, three important 'contradictions' are examined as possible points of departure for a postmodern sociological discourse. Foucault's genealogical approach, it is argued, is useful in helping to orientate any attempts to develop a sociology of this kind. The analysis concludes by anticipating possible objections, showing how these might profitably be incorporated into future enquiries. The aim of the paper is not to offer concrete enunciations for a postmodern sociology, but to develop more modest rules of thumb through which such a discourse might be erected.

Insofar as sociology is the discipline associated with inquiry into social relations and conditions -seeking to understand the 'logic' of society based on interpretive generalisations drawn from empirical observations -it is explicitly a product and, therefore, a project of 'modernisation'. That is, sociology arose as a way to understand society in tandem with the historical processes that arose in Western Europe and spread east and south into Asia and Africa and on to the Americas and Oceania from around the seventeenth century onwards . Modernisation as such implies a transformation of social conditions, away from the primacy of agricultural production located in the countryside and villages, often centred on a large place of worship such as a cathedral or temple or centre of power such as a castle or fort, and towards the primacy of non-agricultural production concentrated in relatively large towns and cities, often centred on markets for goods and services or sites for distributing these, such as a factory or stock exchange. Modernisation also implies a transformation of social relations, away from the primacy of inter-personal bonds of kinship or fealty and linked to historical interdependencies that draw upon a cosmological, that is, more or less religious, order that stretches back over time and establishes hierarchical relations between humans and between humans and the natural environment ). Modernisation ushers in a shift towards the prevalence of relatively abstract social relations based around mediating 'tokens' such as paper money or legal rules .

Postmodernism and Society, 1990

Many sociologists, cultural commentators, literary theorists and philosophers have been intrigued by the idea of postmodernity for some time now, and this interest is reflected in the considerable outpouring of writing on the topic which has appeared over the last year or two. There seems, however, to be scant agreement on how the crucial terms in these discussions are to be understood. 'Modernity' and 'postmodernity', 'modernism' and 'postmodernism' appear and reappear in philosophical, literary and other texts in what is at first sight a bewildering array of guises. Combined, especially in Britain, with a scepticism towards fashionableespecially French-debates as well as resistance to what are seen as trendy neologisms, particularly in the realm of culture and aesthetics, there is a danger that much of the debate about postmodernism will remain on the academic and cultural margins, the property of an avant-garde but held generally in deep suspicion and even derision by the rest. This collection is offered in the belief that the debate about postmodernism addresses issues that are actually of crucial significance to the humanities and the social sciences and, more

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2021

The study of main sociological theories is imperative as it helps us to understand the reasoning or out of the box why particular facts about the social world are related in their generation (Macionis & Geber, 2010, p14). This article discusses the pertinence of the classical (Augustus Comte, Emile Durkheim), Modern (Max Weber) and Postmodern (Jean Baudrillard, Jurgen Habermas, Pierre Bourdieu) sociologists thoughts. In addition to this, the background of Modern and Postmodern theories and how their specific substantial thoughts have been criticized and are limited in their own era and had little or even no growth consequently. In concise, the proposition of the article is the emergence of different theories in the respective time after contrasting the previous theories and true sociological theory functions according to present and not past. Thus, the ever-changing nature of the society and the rigidness in the system is to be sine qua non and footing for dynamic and static sociological thought.

Revue Française de Sociologie, 1996

Postmodernism as a theory stems from the critical school, though many critical scholars often dissociate themselves from the postmodernist view. This essay is an attempt to critique the theory of postmodernism in the international system. The essay traces postmodernism to the widespread ideas of literary critics where it expanded to architecture, and geography. As an intellectual movement, it represents the thoughts of Focault, Derrida and Baudrillard among others. The essay points out the nature of post modernism in the international system and the criticisms of the theory. The paper is divided into an introductory part, a conceptual clarification, and a brief discussion of the history of Postmodernism. The use of postmodernism in international relations analysis is equally attempted. The criticisms of the theory are equally explained. The essay ends in a conclusive note that summarizes the main content of the paper.

Capital & Class, 1991

The claims currently being made on behalf of post modernism are nothing if not diverse-everything from architecture through formal theoretical developments to the organisation of the economy is now said to be post-modernist. Strange perhaps, then, that outside of the aesthetic sphere we heard so little, relatively speaking, about modernism. Still the very diversity of the arguments in its favour suggest that 'postmodernism' denotes something more than a passing fancy. Reactions on the Left to the phenomenon have varied from the openly hostile, dismissing the case as no more consequential than the cultural coke of metropolitan intellectuals, to the enthusiastic embrace, identifying postmodern identities as the bearers of a new decentralised and potentially democratic 'New Times'. What is involved in these contrary assessments and what, precisely, is the condition of postmodernity or the postmodern condition? At one level, 'postmodernism' is a term of cultural analysis, referring to changes in the forms of production, media of distribution and modes of consumption of artistic creation.

Well before it became autonomous, which made possible contemporary value pluralism and multiculturalism, neo-classical sociologists had been aware of the ascendancy of culture. For instance, Parsons registered the process of 'cultural revolution' through which the cultural system was being differentiated from the social, political and economic systems; and Habermas saw a growing concern with 'motivation and meaning' in 'postmodern societies' taking the place of the older concern with 'value'. The increase in the significance, awareness and discursive availability of culture anticipated by these and other authors took, at least from a neo-classical sociological point of view, a rather unexpected turn. It culminated in the cultural heterogenization of the social that favoured such new developments as postmodernism and cultural studies and, by the same token, threatened sociology with obsolescence and placed sociologists on the defensive. 3

Is ‘ postmodernity’ anything more than something dreamed up by sociologists? Has the term any salience as a description of a stage in the development of society after capitalism? Has the cultural phase, ‘modernity’, actually reached its end allowing ‘post-‘?Here, the agrument is that ‘postmodernity’ and thus postmodernism and postmodernists are products of a series of moves in a game played by sociologists. The purpose of the game is to establish the centrality and importance to society of this group of authors who lay claim to features of ‘postmodernity’ like ‘identity’ and ‘belonging’ and to their sole abilities to identify these for ‘society’. An account is offered of the moves, of the implementation and of the outcome. The account is itself a critique of ‘theorising’ and appeals to symbolic interactionists and ethnomethodologists, not to be distracted and to focus on getting sociology’s work done.