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Culture and Identity
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Culture and Identity
Critical Theories

First Edition

Other Titles in:
Social Theory

July 2003 | 240 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
`Ross Abbinnett brings a keen and subtle philosophical mind to bear on themes and debates that have become commonplace in sociology. This is a sinuously written book which casts new light on pressing contemporary issues. It is required reading for everyone who wants to think seriously and with an open mind about the terrain of the present' - Keith Tester, Professor of Sociology, University of Portsmouth

This incisive and timely book provides a concise and reliable guide to the debate on modernity and postmodernity. In particular the work of Lyotard, Beck, Bauman, Baudrillard, Giddens, Jameson and Derrida is critically reviewed.

Culture and Identity provides: a thorough and accessible discussion of the main themes in the modernity-postmodernity debate; a shrewd and penetrating account of how these themes address everyday life; a novel account of how technology is altering our perceptions of the `human'; and a balanced account of the hope for radical politics and radical critique to correct the excesses of capitalism.

What emerges most forcefully from the book is the error of dismissing postmodernism as a self-indulgent and ultimately, dangerous piece of ideology. Abbinnett provides a pertinent reminder of the continuing importance of the themes and challenges raised in the `postmodern moment'.

 
Introduction
 
PART ONE: POSTMODERNITY AND POSTMODERNISM
 
Levinas and Bauman
The Ethics of Care

 
 
Beck and Giddens
Risk and Reflexive Modernity

 
 
Baudrillard
Media and Simulation

 
 
Lyotard and Jameson
Postmodernity and the Aesthetic

 
 
Derrida
Deconstruction and Identity

 
 
PART TWO: MEDIA, CULTURE AND IDENTITY
 
Technology, Ideology and the Culture Industry
 
Information, Simulation and the `Silent Majorities'
 
The Postmodern and the Sublime
 
Culture, Politics, Différance
 
PART THREE: POSTMODERNISM AND THE END OF HISTORY
 
Derrida, Fukuyama and the `New World Order'
 
Science, Technology and Catastrophe
 
Capitalism, Globalization and Cosmopolitanism

`Ross Abbinnett brings a keen and subtle philosophical mind to bear on themes and debates that have become commonplace in sociology. This is a sinuously written book which casts new light on pressing contemporary issues. It is required reading for everyone who wants to think seriously and with an open mind about the terrain of the present' - Keith Tester, Professor of Sociology, University of Portsmouth

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