Today’s Class

1. Today’s Class • Postmodernism: a brief introduction • Consumer Society

2. Postmodernism • No single unified theory (many postmodernisms) • Cross-disciplinary approach, with roots in the humanities

3. Two Senses of “Postmodern” • Forms of society, epochs traditional society  modernity  postmodernity • Cultural/artistic movements earlier movements  modernism  postmodernism

4. Key Elements of Postmodern Theory • Rejection of “metanarratives” • Rejection of ultimate truths, fixed reality (“antifoundational”) • Rejection of progress and rationality; interest in what modernity dismisses or devalues

5. Implications for Social Science • Rejection of positivism, science model • Interest in the marginal • Standard social science: measurement, specification, causation, simplification, regularity • Postmodern alternative: indeterminacy, diversity, difference, complexity, uniqueness • Social science as subjective, humble, interpretive, tentative exercise

6. Modern and Postmodern: A Partial Comparison (handout) • History/Theory • Knowledge/Truth • Human Agency • Politics • Economy • Language • Reality • Preferred Forms

7. Critiques of Postmodern Theory • Empirically grounded critiques • People still find meaning • People are not always passive • Shift to consumer society is only partial • Logical critique • Story of postmodernity supplanting modernity is itself a metanarrative! • Normative critique • No room for social criticism and efforts at positive social change

8. Baudrillard, “Consumer Society” • Proliferation of consumer goods and messages • Department stores • “Drugstores”/Malls • Rejection of existing approaches to consumption • Economics • Sociology • Galbraith, The New Industrial State

9. Baudrillard, “Consumer Society” • Baudrillard’s alternative: “ . . . The system of needs is the product of the system of production . . .” (p. 42)

10. Fluidity of objects and needs • Objects have objective function and signifying function • Objects are substitutable, exchangeable • “Needs” reflect desire for social meaning • Consumption is not about pleasure, it’s about participation in a collective system of signs • Pleasure as a duty of citizenship, emergence of a “fun morality”

11. The System and the Masses • Industrial system first socialized masses into labor force, now into force of consumption • System needs people as consumers . . . raises problem of social integration • Loss of “altruist ideology” (cf. Durkheim) • Internal contradictions – “potential for deep crisis” (cf. Habermas)

12. In-Class Writing What are some of the “new means of consumption” described by Ritzer? Does he view them positively or negatively?

13. “The Merchants of Cool” • General reactions? • How does this documentary relate to postmodern theory? • Do you agree that the result of consumer society is a flattening of the culture, a debasing of standards? • Do you think that (young) people find ways to express themselves other than through consumption choices?

14. “The Merchants of Cool” • Do you think the marketing strategies shown here support Baudrillard’s idea that the system of production generates a system of needs, rather than needs/wants for specific objects? • Do the words and behaviors of the consumers in this film support Baudrillard’s claim that consumption is not really about pleasure but about social communication?