What is the title of this book intended to signify, what connotations is the adjective "Postmodern" meant to carry? A potential reader will surely pose this question. To answer it, I should describe what distinguishes the approach to analysis presented here from what has been called "Modern Analysis" by its protagonists. "Modern Analysis" as represented in the works of the Bour baki group or in the textbooks by Jean Dieudonne is characterized by its systematic and axiomatic treatment and by its drive towards a high level of abstraction. Given the tendency of many prior treatises on analysis to degen erate into a collection of rather unconnected tricks to solve special problems, this definitively represented a healthy achievement. In any case, for the de velopment of a consistent and powerful mathematical theory, it seems to be necessary to concentrate solelyon the internal problems and structures and to neglect the relations to other fields of scientific, even of mathematical study for a certain while. Almost complete isolation may be required to reach the level of intellectual elegance and perfection that only a good mathematical theory can acquire. However, once this level has been reached, it might be useful to open one's eyes again to the inspiration coming from concrete ex ternal problems.

What is the title of this book intended to signify, what connotations is the adjective “Postmodern” meant to carry? A potential reader will surely pose this question. To answer it, I should describe what distinguishes the - proach to analysis presented here from what has by its protagonists been called “Modern Analysis”. “Modern Analysis” as represented in the works of the Bourbaki group or in the textbooks by Jean Dieudonn ́ e is characterized by its systematic and axiomatic treatment and by its drive towards a high level of abstraction. Given the tendency of many prior treatises on analysis to degenerate into a collection of rather unconnected tricks to solve special problems, this de?nitely represented a healthy achievement. In any case, for the development of a consistent and powerful mathematical theory, it seems to be necessary to concentrate solely on the internal problems and structures and to neglect the relations to other ?elds of scienti?c, even of mathematical study for a certain while. Almost complete isolation may be required to reach the level of intellectual elegance and perfection that only a good mathem- ical theory can acquire. However, once this level has been reached, it can be useful to open one’s eyes again to the inspiration coming from concrete external problems.

Providing an introduction to situational analysis, Adele E. Clarke outlines how this method differs from and is superior to grounded theory and to qualitative data analysis.

Although postmodernism has had clear impact on literary criticism, the social and political implications of this philosophy have not been systematically investigated. Murphy's study is the first to bring a broad interdisciplinary perspective to the subject and to present postmodernism as a coherent social theory. Responding with compelling arguments to critics of postmodernism, Murphy develops a model that offers a viable alternative to traditional approaches to conceptualizing and studying social life. In an introductory chapter, Murphy looks at the differences between modernism and postmodernism and discusses the metanarratives that characterize the former. He goes on to clarify key assumptions and concepts, especially the postmodern opposition to the traditional Western separation of subject and object. In subsequent chapters, he describes the research methodology used by postmodernists, their views of social ontology and the relationship between order and structure, and the creation of socially responsible institutions. The postmodernists' reconceptualization of key aspects of cultural reality, including time, space, reason, and social relations, is examined in detail. Murphy concludes by exploring the political ramifications of the postmodernist model and its potential as a vehicle for building a genuinely democractic society. This study will be of particular interest to philosophers, economists, and sociologists concerned with contemporary developments in European social philosophy. It is relevant to courses or study in social theory and philosophy, communication theory, cultural criticism, and related fields.

A highly controversial intervention into the debate on postmodernism and feminism, this book looks at what happens when these modes of analysis are jointly employed to illuminate the sexual politics of Islam. As a religion, Islam has been demonized for its gender practices like no other. This book analyzes that Orientalism, with particular reference to representations of Muslim women and describes the real sexual politics of Islam. The author goes on to describe the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and the West's response to it. She argues that regardless of the sophisticated argument of postmodernists and their suspicion of power, as an intellectual and political movement postmodernism has put itself in the service of power and the status quo. Moghissi brilliantly demonstrates how this trend has given rise to a neo-conservative feminism. A major feminist critique of Islamic fundamentalism, this book asks some hard questions of those who, in denouncing the racism of Western feminism, have taken up an uncritical embrace of the Islamic identity of Muslim women. It is urgent reading for all those concerned about human rights, as well as for students and academics of women's studies, political science, social theory and religious studies.

This book presents a groundbreaking analysis of the emergence of a pos tmodern paradigm in theory, the arts, science, and politics. From the authors of Postmodern Theory, the much-acclaimed introduction to key p ostmodern thinkers and themes, The Postmodern Turn ranges over diverse intellectual and artistic terrain--from architecture, painting, liter ature, music, and politics, to the physical and biological sciences. C ritically engaging postmodern theory and culture, Steven Best and Doug las Kellner illuminate our momentous transition between a modernist pa st and a future struggling to define itself.

The book deals with film, television, information technology, consumer products and popular literature, and assesses challenges to conceptions of the postmodern based on gender, race and religion.

The Postmodern Turn gathers together in one volume some of the most important statements of the postmodern approach to human studies. In addressing postmodern social theory and emphasising the social role of knowledge, this book abandons the disciplinary boundaries separating the sciences and the humanities. The first collection of its kind, it provides the classic essays of authors such as Lyotard, Haraway, Foucault and Rorty. Contributors include well-known theorists in the fields of sociology, anthropology, women's and gay studies, philosophy, and history.

A work of political theory with a focus on questions of strategy that examines the politics of the New Left in the 1960s, showing how its expressivism led to political division and also prepared the ground for postmodernism. It shows also how the political economy of academic life in an increasingly commodified society strengthened the basis of postmodernism. Develops a brilliant account of a Marxism that sets itself the task of building a collective political subject capable of challenging capitalism in its moment of global crisis. [publisher web site].

In this book it explores science and technology, makes connections between these epistemic, cultural, and political trends, and develops profound insights into the nature of our postmodernity.