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Summary AQA A-level Sociology Book 2: Theory and methods: Postmodernity A* revision notes

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If you want to get an A* in sociology then these summarised revision notes are your step to success. This document contains detailed notes on Postmodernity in the Theory and Methods Topic. All notes are summarised and will save you hours of time which can be used revising these notes. Notes includ...

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Which chapters are summarized? Theory and methods: postmodernity
Uploaded on November 21, 2022
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Type Summary

Postmodernism
Modernity and Globalisation

- Part of the enlightenment project- idea that society can progress through human
reason.

Modern Society

- 18th C in Western Europe
- The nation-state- key political unit (a bounded territory rules by powerful
centralised state, whose population usually share the same language and culture).
State is focal point of society/ source of identity for citizens, symbols e.g., flag.
- Capitalism: nation-state regulates capitalism (Lash/Urry ‘organised capitalism’
- Modern industry: production organised on Fordist principles(after Ford Motor
Company’s system): mass production of standardised products in large factories,
using low skilled labour -> rise living standard
- Rationality, science, and technology- science dominate, religion declines
- Individualism- Tradition less important, greater personal freedom

Globalisation: interconnectedness of people across national boundaries.

1. Tech Changes
- Internet -> time-space compression, closing distances between people.
- -> risk on global scale e.g greenhouse gases
- Beck: we live in ‘risk society: threats to well being human-made
2. Economic Changes
- Instead of producing physical goods, activity involves production of info( TV) ->
distributed through global electronic networks.
- Trans-national companies: organise production on global scale: western based
(coca-coal)
- Sklair: now form a separate global capitalist class.

3. Political Changes
- Globalisation undermined power of nation-state
- Ohmae: now live in ‘borderless world: TNCs have more economic power than
national governments.
- States less able to regulate activities of large capitalist enterprises
- Lash/ Urry describe a ‘disorganised capitalism’.

4. Changes in Culture and identity
- Globalisation -> harder for culture to exist in isolation due to communications (mass
media spread Western culture to world)
- Economic integration encourages global culture Eg: TNCs (Nike: sell same consumer
goods in many countries, promote similar tastes across borders.
- Increased tourists, refugees create globalised culture.
- Globalisation undermines traditional sources of identity (class)

, - Eg: shift of manufacturing from West to developing counties -> fragmentation/
decline of WC communities that gave people their class identity.

Explaining the Changes

Postmodernism

- Unstable, image and reality indistinguishable, we define ourselves by what we
consume

Knowledge

- Foucault: anti-foundationalism: no objective criteria we can use to prove if theory is
true/ false, 2 consequences:
1. Enlightenment project: progress through scientific knowledge is dead as cannot
guarantee our knowledge is correct.
2. Any theory that claims to have truth about how to create a better society
- Eg: Marxism: meta-narrative -> oppressive totalitarian states (Soviet union ->
political repression/ slave labour camps)
- Relativist position: rejecting meta-narratives that claim absolute truth, should
celebrate diversity of views, all accounts of reality are equally valid
- Lyotard: postmodern society: knowledge is ways of seeing the world.
Postmodernity allows marginalised groups to be heard.

Baudrillard: Simulacra

- Baudrillard: society now based on buying/ selling knowledge in form of images/
signs
- Signs not real: called simulacra Eg: Kylie Jenner selfies
- Describes as hyper-reality: signs don’t represent anything real (meaningless) ->
hard to distinguish between image and reality.

Culture, identity, and Politics

- Media -> ever-changing versions of truth -> culture fragmented/ unstable (no
longer fixed set of values shared by society)
- Undermines faith in meta-narratives: hard to find truth
- Failure of meta-narratives to deliver better society -> lose faith in progress.
- Identity becomes destabilised: we construct own identity from images in media
- -> changes consumption patterns
- Baudrillard: if we cannot grasp reality, we have no power to change it ->
Enlightenment project is unachievable.

Evaluation of postmodernism

- Miller (Marxist): Ideas that media images unconnected with reality ignore ruling
class’s use of media as a tool of domination
- Overlooks effect of poverty in restricting consumption opportunities.
- Wrong to claim people cannot distinguish between reality and media image.
- Believes all views are true -> denies Nazis murdered millions
- Criticised on logical grounds: Lyotard’s theory is self-defeating: why should we
believe a theory that claims to have no truth?

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Summary AQA A-level Sociology Book 2: Theory and methods: Postmodernity A* revision notes

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