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Postmodernism is a complicated term, or a set of ideas, it is one that has only emerged as an area of academic study since the mid-1980s. Postmodernism is hard to define, because it is a concept that appears in a wide variety of disciplines or areas of study, including art, architecture, music, film, literature, sociology, communications, fashion, and technology. It is hard to locate it temporally or historically, because it is not clear exactly at what point postmodernism emerges.
Postmodernism may be taken to refer to movements, philosophies or responses to the state of post-modernity, or in reaction to modernism. Many philosophers, particularly those seeing themselves as being within the modern project, use post-modernity with the reverse implication: the presumed results of holding postmodernist ideas. Most prominently this includes Jurgen Habermas and others who contend that post-modernity represents a resurgence of long running counter-enlightenment ideas.
Postmodernism is different from post-modernity which can be said to focus on the conditions of life which became increasingly prevalent in the late 20th century in the most industrialised nations. These include the ubiquity of mass media and mass production, the unification into national economies of all aspects of production, the rise of global economic arrangements, and shift from manufacturing to service economies.
Variously described as consumerism or, in a Marxian framework, late capitalism, namely, a context where manufacturing, distribution and dissemination have become exceptionally inexpensive, but social connection and community have become more expensive.
Post-modernity as a condition ascribes to more rapid transportation, wider communication and the ability to abandon standardisation of mass production, leading to a system which values a wider range of capital than previously, and allows value to be stored in a greater variety of forms. David Harvey argues that the condition of post-modernity is the escape from ‘Fordism’, a term coined in reference to the Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
Artefacts of post-modernity include the dominance of television and popular culture, the wide accessibility of information and mass and telecommunications. Post-modernity also exhibits a greater resistance to making sacrifices in the name of progress, including such features as environmentalism and the growing importance of the anti-war movement. Post-modernity in the industrialised core is marked by increasing focus on civil rights and equal opportunity, as seen by such movements as feminism and multiculturalism, as well as the backlash against these movements.
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For social, political, technological and economic determinists, post-modernity is a major cause of the emergence of postmodernism and postmodern culture. For others, it is a mode of society which goes hand in hand with postmodernism. Post-modernity may be a reason for some to choose postmodernism as a way of life, epistemological, ethical or aesthetic position.
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One position maintains that post-modernity is a condition or state of being, or is concerned with changes to institutions and conditions (Giddens 1990) – whereas postmodernism is an aesthetic, literary, political or social philosophy that consciously responds to postmodern conditions, or seeks to move beyond or offers a critique of modernity.
In the whole course of above discussion, political theory means ‘traditional political theory’ mainly related to goals, values, ultimate nature, and moral functions of political society and its institutions. They often tag political theory with political philosophy. The Greek word ‘theoria’ for ‘theory’ originally meant ‘deep thinking’ or ‘inward seeing’. Its aim was to search out intellectually the hidden meaning lying behind apparent reality. Germino regards political theory as the ‘critical study of the principles of right order in human social existence.’
Thus, traditional political theory is different from modern political theory. The former emerges basically from philosophy, religion, ethics or history, and puts emphasis mostly on ends or goals of human life. Its theorists are mainly political philosophers, and they write with an attitude of a social reformer. Their interest towards actual political processes, events etc., is secondary, even peripheral. Being based on metaphysical or abstract entities, their basic tenets or principles, being subjective, cannot be tested or verified empirically.
One may or may not accept them. The traditionalists widely differ on method, subject matter, and conclusions. The traditional political theories declined and went out of date, and no new political theory came from them. Even the rise and spread of critical theories and concepts of post-modernity and postmodernism have not served the purpose.