How Does Social Science understand

Social Reality:
Postmodernism
Current Development in Social Science

Dwi Ardiyanti, S.S., M.A

 Characters of post modernism
They reject any preference for the complex
urban life-style of the intellectual over the rural routine of
the peasantry in the countryside (Karnoouh 1986). they
attribute renewed relevance to the traditional, the sacred,
the particular, and their rational (Touraine 1990)
self-managing, self-reproducing" popular culture of pre-
modern times (Bauman 1987: 67); a few even romanticize
the period when people lived in caves (Gebauer 1989). The
post-modern "remembers, recollects" and asserts that
there is no special value for the new (Vattimo 1988: 101)
 The post modernism
Identity. In postmodern approaches, individual (or even group) identity is
not clearly and unambiguously defined, rather it shifts over time and is
generally considered unstable. In addition, it is primarily local
circumstances and experiences of individuals, rather than larger structural
conditions or positions and locations, that are important in shaping these
identities. This means that social classes, ethnic groups, or status groups
may not exist in the manner described in social theory, and analysis of
these does not provide a useful way of understanding the contemporary
social world. That is, the shared circumstances or common situations of
class, race, or ethnicity may not exist, and may be purely a theoretical
construct that theorists attempt to impose of the social world. Shared and
common identities give way to shifting and localized identities that may or
may not be shaped by the individual. These identities are continually
being formed, changed, and particular individuals shift in and out of these
experiences and situations, thus changing their identities.
 Continued
Politics. The political implication of this is that it may be
difficult to imagine collective action, social movements, and
social change toward some specific goal. For extreme
postmodernists, there may be no goals or plans that people
can or should attempt to strive for or achieve. Some
postmodernists argue that identities and localized
situations are all that we should be concerned with; others
argue that political action can still be a useful means of
improving society. Some may not take a particular point of
view on important social questions, arguing that all
identities, statements, and texts are equally valid, and
while these can be interpreted or read, no judgments on
the validity or invalidity of these is possible or desirable.
 Continued
Differences. A feature that is common among postmodernists is to
reject grand theoretical approaches or "meta narratives" entirely.
Rather than searching for a theoretical approach that explains all
aspects of society, postmodernism is more concerned with
examining the variety of experiences of individuals and groups and
it emphasizes differences over similarities and common
experiences. In the view of many postmodernists, the modern
world is "fragmented, disrupted, disordered, interrupted" and
unstable and may not be understandable on a large scale
(Rosenau, p. 170). A large part of this approach is to critique the
grand theoretical approaches and "deconstruct texts" (Ritzer, pp.
632-636). This requires the reader to interpret texts, but not
impose on others the reader's interpretation of texts (Rosenau, p.
170).
 Continued
Reflexive? Smart (p. 421-2) argues that modern theory was
very reflexive composed of reflection, thought, and
consideration of the world around us, with a view to
understanding and changing the social world. Further, such
reflection "includes reflection upon the nature of reflection
itself" (Giddens, in Smart, p. 422) consideration of the
nature of social thought through subjects such as
philosophy and the applied social science. In the modern
view, this created the possibility of knowledge or even
truth, constructed through reflection, with this knowledge
describing the social world around us. This has led some
theorists to the view that they have models that represent
the natural and social world.
 Challenges in post modernism
Post-modernism challenges global, all-
encompassing world views, be they political,
religious, or social. It reduces Marxism,
Christianity, Fascism, Stalinism, capitalism,
liberal democracy, secular humanism,
feminism, Islam, and modern science to the
same order and dismisses them all as logo
centric, transcendental totalizing meta-
narratives that anticipate all questions and
provide predetermined answers.