Post-modernity is a concept that represents the entire socio-cultural structure from the late 1980s to the present day. In short, postmodernity consists of the environment in which the postmodern society is inserted, characterized by globalization and the domination of the capitalist system.
Several authors divide postmodernity into two main periods. The first phase would have started with the end of World War II and developed until the decline of the Soviet Union (end of the Cold War). The second and final stage began at the end of the 1980s, with the breaking of the bipolarity experienced in the world during the Cold War.
Stages of Postmodernity
First stage of Post-Modernity
In general, postmodernity represents the "break" with old models of linear thinking defended in the modern era by the Enlightenment. These were based on the defense of reason and science as part of a plan for the development of humanity.
However, with the horrors witnessed in World War II, a strong feeling of dissatisfaction and disappointment in society
, since the entire "plan" based on Enlightenment ideals had failed.According to Jean François Lyotard (1924 - 1998), one of the most important philosophers to conceptualize postmodernity, it can be clearly exemplified as the total bankruptcy of ideas taken for granted and true in the past by thinkers modern.
Post-modernity questions the great utopias and ancient certainties that were previously defended by the Enlightenment. In this way, it starts to consider everything as a set of mere hypotheses or speculations.
Second stage of Post-Modernity: consolidation
Many scholars regard the late 1980s as the definitive consolidation of Post-Modernity as a social, political and economic structure in the world. With the end of the bipolarity imposed by the Cold War, the world started to live under a New Order, based on the idea of plurality and globalization among almost all nations.
Technological advances and in the media, the boom of the internet and the monopoly of the capitalist system are some of the characteristics that helped to consolidate the principles that define the post-modern society.
The definition of postmodernity is complex and there are different views on its formation and meaning. Several sociologists, philosophers, critics and scholars seek to explain this phenomenon that "replaced" the principles that once marked modernity.
Characteristics of postmodernity
Post-modernity is characterized by the break with the Enlightenment ideals that were defended during the modern era, like the utopian dreams of building a perfect society based on principles taken as true and unique.
Among other outstanding features, emphasis on:
- Replacement of collective thinking, and emergence of the feeling of individualism, represented by narcissism, hedonism and consumerism;
- Appreciation of the "here and now" (carpe diem);
- Hyper-reality (mixture between the real and the imaginary, mainly with the help of online technologies and environments);
- Subjectivity (nothing is concrete and fixed. The idea previously taken as true is now interpreted as just one more in the set of hypotheses);
- Multiculturalism and Plurality (as a result of globalization and a mixture of typical characteristics of each culture, for example);
- Fragmentation (mixing and union of several fragments of different styles, trends, cultures, etc);
- Decentralization;
- Banalization or absence of values.
See also the meaning of multiculturalism.
Postmodernity or Postmodernism?
There is a great deal of discussion around the correct use of these two terms. Some scholars consider both synonymous, while others try to emphasize the differences between postmodernity and postmodernism.
Fredric Jameson, an American literary critic and one of the main authors to analyze postmodernity, argues that, although similar in some aspects, the two concepts are distinct.
THE postmodernity would be a structure, that is, the way the current society is configured. For Jameson this period can be called "late capitalism" or "third moment of capitalism". In short, it represents the period in which globalization is consolidated, as well as changes in technological, communicational, scientific, economic, etc. areas.
On the other hand, the postmodernism must be interpreted as an artistic-cultural style, which was essentially born from architecture and spread to the arts and literature.
In other words, it would be correct to use the term postmodernism to refer to works and other stylistic works that have characteristics of postmodernity, such as:
- absence of rules and values;
- individualism;
- plurality;
- shock and mixture between real and imaginary (hyper-real);
- freedom of expression, etc.
For Jameson this differentiation is important, because while style is something ephemeral (it changes easily), changing a structure is not so easy.
Zygmunt Bauman and 'Liquid Modernity'
The studies carried out by Bauman (1925 - 2017) on postmodernity and its consequences are considered one of the most significant, whether in the sociological or philosophical field.
The Polish thinker coined the expression "liquid modernity" to refer to the period known as postmodernity.
For Bauman, social relations in postmodernity are very ephemeral, that is, just as they are easily built, they tend to be destroyed just as easily. The relationships maintained through social networks on the internet are a good example of the principle of fluidity in contemporary relationships.
Instability, fragmentation, decentralization and multiplicity, which are some of the most striking characteristics of society postmodern, help to understand the idea of using the word "liquid" to define the state of the current "modernity", according to Bauman.
Just as liquids don't have a shape and can more easily "glide" from side to side in a jar, for example, in this way the human behaviors and values of society can also be described. globalized.
Learn more about the meaning of net modernity.
Difference between Modernity and Postmodernity
For many scholars, the so-called "modern era" would have started from the French Revolution (18th century), when there was a break with the thoughts that prevailed in the medieval period to raise the ideals Enlightenment
According to the principles of the Enlightenment, during Modernity reason and science predominated as exclusive means of conquering the absolute truth of all things.
During the modern era, the Industrial Revolution also began, which developed while society lived in the midst of a great ideological conflict. It is noteworthy that at that time the idea of the existence of a final and definitive truth was assimilated.
Unlike the fragmented state of postmodernity, in modernity predominated linear and Cartesian thinking, where society met under the guise of a common purpose. The "plans" in favor of building utopian social structures were what motivated humanity during this period.
With the end of World War II, there was a profound crisis in society that began to abandon the old failed "plans" of the modern era. Thus, little by little, all the characteristics that define the current post-modern society emerge: individualism, the predominance of capitalism, consumerism, the valorization of individual pleasure, etc.
| Modernity | post-modernity |
|---|---|
| Beginning of the French Revolution (century. XVIII). | Beginning at the end of the Cold War (80s century XX). |
| Linear and Cartesian thinking. | Fragmented thinking. |
| Collective plan, in search of the "utopian dream". | Individualism / Each person in search of their individual pleasures and satisfactions. |
| Search for order and progress. | Breaking territorial and cultural barriers / Globalization. |
| Working towards a collective "plan" for the future. | Hedonism / Living the "here and now". |
Learn more about Enlightenment. And to better understand the meaning of the structure of postmodernity, see also globalization and Characteristics of globalization.
