After Postmodernism
Reconstructing Ideology Critique
SAGE Publications Ltd (Publisher)
1st Edition
Published on 8. September 1994
Book
Hardback
272 pages
978-0-8039-8877-4 (ISBN)
Description
This interdisciplinary book addresses the key questions posed by the postmodernist challenge: Is it possible to reflect and criticize in an age when every claim to truth is placed under suspicion? Are social critics contaminated by the same ideological distortions they identify in society?
The text reviews different responses to such dilemmas and thus examines ways to reconstruct social theory and critique following the postmodern attack on the traditional foundations of knowledge. Whether looking at political critique and praxis, feminist issues, ideology or teaching practices, the contributions are united by the need to ground a new theoretical and political position in the absence of the foundational certainties once provided by positivism and empiricism.
The text reviews different responses to such dilemmas and thus examines ways to reconstruct social theory and critique following the postmodern attack on the traditional foundations of knowledge. Whether looking at political critique and praxis, feminist issues, ideology or teaching practices, the contributions are united by the need to ground a new theoretical and political position in the absence of the foundational certainties once provided by positivism and empiricism.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 138 mm
Weight
410 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8039-8877-4 (9780803988774)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Professor Michael Billig is professor of social sciences at the University of Loughborough. His most recent books are Ideology and Opinions: Studies in Rhetorical Sociology (SAGE, 1991) and Talking of the Royal Family (1992).
Michael Billig has been Professor of Social Sciences at Loughborough University, UK, since 1985. He took his undergraduate degree at Bristol University, where he also completed his Ph.D. in experimental social psychology, under the supervision of Henri Tajfel. Michael considers Tajfel to have have been one of the most important figures in the history of social psychology. After leaving Bristol to take up a lectureship at Birmingham University, Michael turned away from experimental social psychology, which he found to be too intellectually and methodologically restricting.
In his work, Michael has attempted to approach social psychological issues from a broader base within the social sciences. He has written books on a variety of topics. His books for SAGE include Banal Nationalism, in which he argued that in established nation-states there is an everyday, often unnoticed form of nationalism. Ideological Dilemmas, written in collaboration with other members of the Loughborough Discourse and Rhetoric Group, suggested that we should study ideology by examining how people argue and use language in everyday life. SAGE also published his book The Hidden Roots of Critical Psychology, which argues that the neglected figure of the third earl of Shaftesbury should be seen as a pivotal influence in the history of psychology, especially in the history of critical psychology. Michael has also written books on rhetoric, fascism, Freud's theory of repression, attitudes towards the British Royal Family and the history of rock'n'roll. His current work argues forcefully that academic social scientists use too much technical terminology and that ordinary concepts are often much clearer than technical ones.
Michael Billig has been Professor of Social Sciences at Loughborough University, UK, since 1985. He took his undergraduate degree at Bristol University, where he also completed his Ph.D. in experimental social psychology, under the supervision of Henri Tajfel. Michael considers Tajfel to have have been one of the most important figures in the history of social psychology. After leaving Bristol to take up a lectureship at Birmingham University, Michael turned away from experimental social psychology, which he found to be too intellectually and methodologically restricting.
In his work, Michael has attempted to approach social psychological issues from a broader base within the social sciences. He has written books on a variety of topics. His books for SAGE include Banal Nationalism, in which he argued that in established nation-states there is an everyday, often unnoticed form of nationalism. Ideological Dilemmas, written in collaboration with other members of the Loughborough Discourse and Rhetoric Group, suggested that we should study ideology by examining how people argue and use language in everyday life. SAGE also published his book The Hidden Roots of Critical Psychology, which argues that the neglected figure of the third earl of Shaftesbury should be seen as a pivotal influence in the history of psychology, especially in the history of critical psychology. Michael has also written books on rhetoric, fascism, Freud's theory of repression, attitudes towards the British Royal Family and the history of rock'n'roll. His current work argues forcefully that academic social scientists use too much technical terminology and that ordinary concepts are often much clearer than technical ones.
Content
Introduction - Michael Billig and Herbert W Simons
PART ONE: THE POSTMODERN PROBLEMATIC
Reconstructing Social Theory after the Postmodern Critique - Richard Harvey Brown
Evading the Subject - Steven E Cole
The Poverty of Contingency Theory
The Limits of Pure Critique - Kenneth J Gergen
Inscription and Horizon - Ian Angus
A Postmodern Civilizing Effect?
PART TWO: IDEOLOGY CRITIQUE AND CULTURAL STUDIES
Staying Dumb? Feminist Research and Pedagogy with/in the Postmodern - Patti Lather
Teaching the Pedagogies - Herbert W Simons
A Dialectical Approach to an Ideological Dilemma
Sod Baudrillard! Or Ideology Critique in Disney World - Michael Billig
The New Politics of the Workplace - Stanley Deetz
Ideology and Other Unobtrusive Controls
For the Nation! How Street Gangs Problematize Patriotism - Dwight Conquergood
`Socialism of the Mind' - Dana L Cloud
The New Age of Post-Marxism
PART ONE: THE POSTMODERN PROBLEMATIC
Reconstructing Social Theory after the Postmodern Critique - Richard Harvey Brown
Evading the Subject - Steven E Cole
The Poverty of Contingency Theory
The Limits of Pure Critique - Kenneth J Gergen
Inscription and Horizon - Ian Angus
A Postmodern Civilizing Effect?
PART TWO: IDEOLOGY CRITIQUE AND CULTURAL STUDIES
Staying Dumb? Feminist Research and Pedagogy with/in the Postmodern - Patti Lather
Teaching the Pedagogies - Herbert W Simons
A Dialectical Approach to an Ideological Dilemma
Sod Baudrillard! Or Ideology Critique in Disney World - Michael Billig
The New Politics of the Workplace - Stanley Deetz
Ideology and Other Unobtrusive Controls
For the Nation! How Street Gangs Problematize Patriotism - Dwight Conquergood
`Socialism of the Mind' - Dana L Cloud
The New Age of Post-Marxism