postmodernity
Late-century cultural shift
Postmodernity is the cultural and historical condition that follows modernity—roughly the late twentieth century onward.
Where modernity emphasized progress, universal truth, and grand narratives, postmodernity is characterized by skepticism toward such certainties, fragmentation of meaning, and the blurring of boundaries between high and low culture.
We live in an age of postmodernity, where irony and pastiche dominate.
The term overlaps with but differs from postmodernism, which refers more specifically to artistic and intellectual movements.
Analysis exposing self-contradiction
- metanarrativeAll-encompassing explanatory framework
- simulacraInsubstantial likenesses or copies
- pasticheImitative artistic tribute
- intertextualityConnections between written works
Baudrillard · Derrida · Foucault · Jameson · rhizome · deterritorialization · hyperreality · discourse
Imitation of real processes
- simulacraInsubstantial likenesses or copies
- BaudrillardPhilosopher of simulated reality
- virtualityState of being simulated
- mediationIntervention to resolve conflict
spectacle · representation · metaverse · deepfake · cyberspace · avatar · augmented-reality · Disneyfication
After manufacturing's dominance
- 21st-centuryPresent hundred-year span
- contemporaryOf the present age
- anthropoceneEra of human dominance
- deindustrializationLoss of industrial capacity
secularism · consumerism · neoliberalism · millennium · multiculturalism · fragmentation · disenchantment · acceleration
State of varied elements
- multiculturalismCoexistence of diverse traditions
- heterogeneityState of being dissimilar
- hybridityMixed-origin quality
- syncretismFusion of different beliefs
eclecticism · polyphony · fragmentation · intersectionality · difference · otherness · multiplicity · decentralization
Denial of certain foundations
- constructivismActive knowledge-building theory
- contextualismBelief justification varies situationally
- subjectivismBelief truth is personal
- indeterminacyLack of fixed outcome
State of mutual linkage
- transnationalCrossing country lines
- borderlessWithout defined limits
- deterritorializationRemoval from native context
- flowsMoves in a current
networks · cosmopolitanism · migration · diaspora · glocalization · mobility · supranational · cross-cultural
deconstruction
Analysis exposing self-contradiction
- metanarrativeAll-encompassing explanatory framework
- simulacraInsubstantial likenesses or copies
- pasticheImitative artistic tribute
intertextuality · Baudrillard · Derrida · Foucault · Jameson · rhizome · deterritorialization · hyperreality · discourse · genealogy
simulation
Imitation of real processes
- simulacraInsubstantial likenesses or copies
- BaudrillardPhilosopher of simulated reality
- virtualityState of being simulated
mediation · spectacle · representation · metaverse · deepfake · cyberspace · avatar · augmented-reality · Disneyfication
post-industrial
After manufacturing's dominance
- 21st-centuryPresent hundred-year span
- contemporaryOf the present age
- anthropoceneEra of human dominance
deindustrialization · secularism · consumerism · neoliberalism · millennium · multiculturalism · fragmentation · disenchantment · acceleration · precarity
diversity
State of varied elements
- multiculturalismCoexistence of diverse traditions
- heterogeneityState of being dissimilar
- hybridityMixed-origin quality
syncretism · eclecticism · polyphony · fragmentation · intersectionality · difference · otherness · multiplicity · decentralization · coexistence
anti-foundationalism
Denial of certain foundations
- constructivismActive knowledge-building theory
- contextualismBelief justification varies situationally
- subjectivismBelief truth is personal
indeterminacy · contingency · multiplicity · incredulity · hermeneutics
interconnectedness
State of mutual linkage
- transnationalCrossing country lines
- borderlessWithout defined limits
- deterritorializationRemoval from native context
flows · networks · cosmopolitanism · migration · diaspora · glocalization · mobility · supranational · cross-cultural · hybridity
- sociologysocial structure, social class, social institutions, social norms, social mobility
- social theorysocial theory, sociology, social contract, social order, social norms
postmodernitymodernity
Being of present times
premodernity · antiquity · classical antiquity · medievalism
postmodernityfoundationalism
Knowledge rests on basics
objectivism · positivism · universalism · essentialism · rationalism
postmodernitymodernism
Favoring contemporary approaches
sincerity · authenticity · classicism · realism · earnestness