"...written with enthusiasm and a commitment to clarity...Lyon shows that the employment of a sociological imagination can add new and unexpected depth to cultural analyses." Keith Tester, University of Portsmouth * What does 'postmodernity' mean? How does it help us grasp the meaning of 'modernity'? Is it better than similar terms such as 'high', 'late', 'reflexive' or 'radicalized' modernity? * What are the enduring social consequences of the widespread diffusion of communication and information technologies and of consumer-oriented lifestyles? * Does being postmodern mean that 'anything goes', or are values and beliefs still socially significant? In the second edition of this highly successful text, postmodernity is seen as the social condition of the twenty-first century, in which some of the most familiar features of the modern world are not only called into question, but actually undermined by novel trends. The key carriers of the postmodern - new technologies and consumerism - emerged in thoroughly modern contexts, but so profoundly affect everyday social life that modernity itself is changing shape. Postmodernity is a way of describing a new society in-the-making without supposing that modernity has been entirely left behind. While some dub these changes as 'high' or 'late' modern, this book argues that 'postmodernity' best captures today's transformations of modernity. Postmodernity is explored as a theoretical concept in order to uncover and illuminate central social trends of the present. Its historical roots and cultural dimensions are examined, as are the ideas of its leading theorists. In this updated and expanded edition, greater attention is paid to processes of globalization as well as to the postmodern view of cyberspace, cyborgs, and the body as a site of moral conflict.

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.

Heidegger, Art, and Postmodernity offers a radical new interpretation of Heidegger's later philosophy, developing his argument that art can help lead humanity beyond the nihilistic ontotheology of the modern age. Providing pathbreaking readings of Heidegger's 'The Origin of the Work of Art' and his notoriously difficult Contributions to Philosophy (From Enowning), this book explains precisely what postmodernity meant for Heidegger, the greatest philosophical critic of modernity, and what it could still mean for us today. Exploring these issues, Iain D. Thomson examines several postmodern works of art, including music, literature, painting and even comic books, from a post-Heideggerian perspective. Clearly written and accessible, this book will help readers gain a deeper understanding of Heidegger and his relation to postmodern theory, popular culture and art.

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.

When Freud wrote his classic Civilization and its Discontents, he was concerned with repression. Modern civilization depends upon the constraint of impulse, the limiting of self expression. Today, in the time of modernity, Bauman argues, Freud's analysis no longer holds good, if it ever did. The regulation of desire turns from an irritating necessity into an assault against individual freedom. In the postmodern era, the liberty of the individual is the overriding value, the criterion in terms of which all social rules and regulations are assessed. Postmodernity is governed by the 'will to happiness': the result, however, is a sacrificing of security. The most prominent anxieties in our society today, Bauman shows, derive from the removal of security. The world is experienced as overwhelmingly uncertain, uncontrollable and frightening. Totalitarian politics frightened by its awesome power; the new social disorder frightens by its lack of consistency and direction. The very pursuit of individual happiness corrupts and undermines those systems of authority needed for a stable life. This book builds imaginatively upon Bauman's earlier contributions to social theory. It consolidates his reputation as the interpreter of postmodernity. The book will appeal to second-year undergraduates and above in sociology, cultural studies, philosophy and anthropology.

This thoughtful and illuminating book provides a major statement on the meaning and importance of postmodernity.