Postmodernism and the Politics of 'Culture' is a comparative critical analysis of the political and intellectual ambitions of postmodernist critical theory and the academic discipline of cultural studies. Katz's polemical aim is to show that cultural studies comes up short in both areas, because its practitioners focus on too-narrow issues-primarily, celebrating the folkways of micro-communities-while denying the very possibility of studying, understanding, and changing society in any comprehensive way and to any universally beneficial purpose. He argues that scholars and activists alike would do well to make use of the analytical tools of postmodernist critical theory, whose practitioners acknowledge the political significance of the differences between social groups, but do not consider them to be unbridgeable, and so seek to develop a set of practices for creating a truly inclusive, truly democratic public sphere.

What happens to politics in the postmodern condition? The Politics of Postmodernity is a political tour de force that addresses this key contemporary question. Politics in postmodernity is carefully contextualized by relating its specific sphere - the polity - to those of the economic, social, technological and cultural. The authors confront globalization and the notion of postmodernity as disorganized capitalism. They analyze the role of the mass media, the changing ways in which politics is used, the role of the state and the progressive potential of politics in postmodern times. Closing with a postscript on the future of the discipline of political science, this book offers a profound yet highly accessible account of how politics is undergoing a shift from the modern to the postmodern.

This book introduces central assumptions that govern postmodern and feminist theory, offering educators a language to create new ways of conceiving pedagogy and its relationship to social, cultural, and intellectual life. It challenges some of the major categories and practices that have dominated educational theory and practice in the United States and in other countries since the beginning of the twentieth century. Rejecting the apolitical nature of some postmodern discourses and the separatism characteristic of some versions of cultural feminism, the contributors take a political stand rooted in concern with cultural and social justice. In so doing, these essays represent a linguistic shift regarding how we think about ethics, foundationalism, difference, and culture. The selections present a concern with developing a language that is critical of master narratives, racism, sexism, and those technologies of power in schools that subjugate, infantilize, and oppress students. The authors also develop a language of possibility that focuses on analyzing how power can be linked productively to knowledge, how teachers can construct classroom social relations based on notions of equity and justice, how critical pedagogy can contribute to an identity politics that is grounded in democratic relations, and how teachers can develop analyses that enable students to become self-reflective actors as they transform themselves and the conditions of their social existence.

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.

Develops a naturalistic postmodern perspective to make constructive proposals about a wide range of topics now in public discussion.

Now in paperback, Fredric Jameson’s most wide-ranging work seeks to crystalize a definition of ”postmodernism”. Jameson’s inquiry looks at the postmodern across a wide landscape, from “high” art to “low” from market ideology to architecture, from painting to “punk” film, from video art to literature.

This highly original and timely volume engages scholars from the breadth of social science and the humanities to provide a critical perspective on cultural forms, practices and identities. It looks beyond the postmodern debate to reinstate the critical dimension in cultural analysis, providing a "student-friendly" introduction to key contemporary issues such as the body, AIDS, race, the environment and virtual reality. Theorizing Culture is essential reading for undergraduate courses in cultural and media studies and sociology, and will have considerable appeal for students and scholars of critical theory, gender studies and the history of ideas.

In this book, Marvin Harris presents his current views on the nature of culture addressing such issues as the mental/behavioral debate, emics and etics, and anthropological holism.

What is the political value of time, and where does that value reside? Should politics place its hope in future possibility, or does that simply defer action in the present? Can the present ground a vision of change, or is it too circumscribed by the status quo? In Qualified Hope: A Postmodern Politics of Time, Mitchum Huehls contends that conventional treatments of time's relationship to politics are limited by a focus on real-world experiences of time. By contrast, the innovative literary forms developed by authors in direct response to political events such as the Cold War, globalization, the emergence of identity politics, and 9/11 offer readers uniquely literary experiences of time. And it is in these literary experiences of time that Qualified Hope identifies more complicated--and thus more productive--ways to think about the time-politics relationship. Qualified Hope challenges the conventional characterization of postmodernism as a period in which authors reject time in favor of space as the primary category for organizing experience and knowledge. And by identifying a common commitment to time at the heart of postmodern literature, Huehls suggests that the period-defining divide between multiculturalism and theory is not as stark as previously thought.