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Résumé
Résumé
History Without a Subject presents a broad-ranging discussion of the topic of postmodernity. Beginning with an analysis of how changes in the global economy are affecting the lives of ordinary Americans, this book suggests that the postmodern condition in this country can be likened to the balkanization of culture and society and the "Brazilianization" of politics and the economy.Arguing that global trends are now more determining than nationally based institutions and organizations, David Ashley traces connections between the postmodern condition and the following developments: the American obsession with consumerism and debt; the loss of security and confidence in the work place; the "culture wars"; the declining quality of education; the loss of "public" intellectuals and debate about public interests; the bipartisan acceptance of many New Right policies; and the resurgence of ethnic and racial mistrust and division.Postmodernization is associated by Ashley with the removal of barriers that previously afforded Americans a certain autonomy from the rest of the world. As a result, not only are jobs now taken from the first world to the third world but also, and increasingly, third-world conditions are produced in the heart of first-world nations such as the United States. History Without a Subject argues that these globalizing processes have yet to be understood by the people whose lives they are transforming--thus the title of the book.
Critiques (1)
Critique de Choice
Ashley's book is really a text on postmodernism, compatible with George Ritzer's Postmodern Social Theory (1997) and Pauline Rosenau's Post-Modernism and the Social Sciences (CH, Sep'92). Ashley covers the now standard approaches to postmodernism: the distinction between postmodernism and postmodernity, the Dadaists, Baudrillard and his critics, Foucault, Habermas, Fordism, Giddens and the compression of time, Bell and postindustrial society, Bauman and the fall of communism, the critical theorists, and consumer culture. The author offers very few new insights or ideas, implying, ironically, that there exists a "mainstream" postmodern social theory. And he fails to cover some nonstandard, cutting edge work in postmodernism by authors such as Akbar Ahmed, Chris Rojek, Richard Rorty, and Keith Tester. Ashley's criticisms of Baudrillard are excessively insulting; he refers to Baudrillard as the "drag queen of the postmodern Left," a "jester," and the "Poster Boy of the Postmodernism Industry." Ashley also claims that Douglas Kellner "has managed only to pump the bladder on the end of Baudrillard's stick." Beyond indicating contempt, it is difficult to discern what this and similar statements mean or contribute to scholarly discussion. Adequate index, selective bibliography. S. G. Mestrovi'c; Texas A&M University
Table des matières
Acknowledgments | p. ix |
1 Postmodernism in America An Introduction | p. 1 |
2 Postmodernism And Social Theory | p. 31 |
3 Postmodern Identity And Postmodern Political Mobilization | p. 64 |
4 Postmodernity as a "Regime Of Accumulation"?: from Fordism To "Flexible Accumulation" | p. 95 |
5 The Globalizing World Economy The Compression of Time, And The Spatial Reorganization Of Social Domination | p. 119 |
6 Postmodernity And Flexible Stratification Is Class Still Material? | p. 135 |
7 Reorganized Capitalism New Processes of Power And Motivation | p. 158 |
8 The New Professionals Changes in Authority And Formal Organization | p. 184 |
9 Postmodernity And The New Class | p. 210 |
10 Conclusion | p. 236 |
Notes | p. 239 |
References | p. 251 |
About the Book and Author | p. 270 |
Index | p. 271 |