RECONSTRUCTING POSTMODERNISM:CRITICAL DEBATES -- RECONSTRUCTING POSTMODERNISM:CRITICAL DEBATES -- CONTENTS -- INTRODUCTION:RECONSTRUCTING POSTMODERNISM -- MAPPING OUT THE TERRAIN -- REFERENCES -- PART I DECONSTRUCTING POSTMODERN EPISTOEMOLOGY -- SELF-IDENTITY AND PERSONHOOD IN SOCIALANALYSIS: THE INADEQUACIES OF POSTMODERNISMAND SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONISM -- INTRODUCTION -- THE POST-MODERN REGRESSION -- VARIETIES OF SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONISM -- POST-WITTGENSTEIN, GOFFMAN AND GIDDENS -- TOWARDS A NEW CONCEPTIONOF SELF-IDENTITY AND PERSONHOOD -- REFERENCES -- COGNITIVE RELATIVISM:BETWEEN POSITIVISTIC AND RELATIVISTICTHINKING IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES -- INTRODUCTION -- 1. OBJECTIVITY AND THE ISSUE OF MEDIATION -- A) Anti-empiricism -- B) The Two Objectivities -- 2. THE POSTMODERN CRITIQUE OF REPRESENTATIONAND EMPIRICAL REFERENCE -- A) The Modern-postmodern Debate in Greek Historiography -- B) Avoiding Relativism and Essentialism -- 3. THE 'INTERNALITY' OF A DISCIPLINE'S SUBJECT MATTER -- A) On the Construction of a Discipline's Subject Matter -- B) In Defense of the Distinction between First- and Second-order SymbolicConstructs -- CONCLUSION -- REFERENCES -- AN EXCURSUS IN POST-POSTMODERNSOCIAL SCIENCE -- INTRODUCTION -- BEYOND THE POSTMODERN -- THE FOUR CARDINAL SINS OF THEORETICAL ANDMETHODOLOGICAL REASONING -- A METATHEORETICAL FRAMEWORK -- A SUBSTANTIVE ILLUSTRATION: GOVERNANCE -- CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS -- REFERENCES -- POSTMODERN SOCIAL THEORY AND SOCIOLOGY:ON SYMBOLIC EXCHANGE WITH A "DEAD" THEORY -- INTRODUCTION -- THE SOCIOLOGY OF CONSUMPTION -- THE "SPIRIT" OF POSTMODERN SOCIALTHEORY: SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES -- Liquidity -- Glocalization, Hybridization, and Creolization -- THE "SPIRIT" OF POSTMODERN SOCIAL THEORY:EPISTEMOLOGICAL ISSUES19 -- CONCLUSION -- REFERENCES -- PART II POSTMODERNISM AND THE CONSTITUTIONOF THE SOCIAL.

THE POSTMODERN TERRORIST RISK:PLUS ÇA CHANGE, PLUS C'EST LA MEME CHOSE -- INTRODUCTION -- POSTMODERN TERRORISM: A RISK SOCIETY EMBLEM? -- POSTMODERN TERRORISM AND THE POLITICS OF RISK:THINKING 'WHAT IF?' -- THE COERCIVE STATE: GOVERNING THROUGH TERRORISM? -- TERRORISM, RISK AND REGULATION:IGNORING THE LESSONS OF HIS -- CONCLUSION -- THE PERILS OF UNCERTAINTY: REFLECTIONSON THEORETICAL PRACTICEAND GRADUATE EDUCATION -- INTRODUCTION -- LOSS AND UNCERTAINTY IN SOCIAL THEORY -- EUROCENTRISM AND WESTERN SOCIAL THEORY -- SOCIAL THEORY AND THE "MASSES" -- IS SOCIAL THEORY POSSIBLE? -- CONFRONTING THEORETICAL CONTRADICTIONSIN THE PRACTICE OF DIALOGICAL EDUCATION -- NARRATIVES OF EDUCATIONAL PRACTICE -- CULTURE, LANGUAGE AND UNCERTAINTY IN EDUCATION -- CONCLUSION -- REFERENCES -- MASCULINITY AS A REPRODUCTION OFTRADITIONALISM, FEMINIST REACTION,AND EGALITARIANISM -- INTRODUCTION -- IDEOLOGY AND THE REPRODUCTION OF MASCULINITY -- STRENGTH THROUGH SELF REFLECTION -- TIME WE DEVOTE FOR SELF-REFLECTIONAND THE QUALITY OF THIS TIME -- TIME WE SPEND WITH OTHERS, AND THE RESPONSIVENESS OF THESEOTHERS TO OUR INVESTIGATION OF OURSELVES -- IDEAL TYPES DESCRIBE THE QUALITY OF MASCULINITY -- Traditionalism -- Anti-Traditional Reaction -- Egalitarianism -- The Reproduction of the Masculine Self -- TRADITIONALISM, ANTI-TRADITIONALISM, AND EGALITARIANISM ASQUARRIES FOR THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF THE MASCULINE SELF -- Macro Level: Keeping Building Blocks Politically Correct -- Micro Level: Where Individual Pragmatism Faces Institutionalized Dogmas -- REFERENCES -- FILM, POSTMODERNISM AND THE SOCIOLOGICALIMAGINATION: EXPLORING THE POWEROF LOCAL STORIES IN SOUTHERN KOREAAND NORTHERN ENGLAND -- INTRODUCTION -- STORIES, GEOGRAPHIES AND CULTURES:SOUTHERN KOREA AND NORTHERN ENGLAND -- SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL CONTEXTS,TEXTUAL STYLE, AND MORAL JUDGEMENTS -- CONCLUSION -- REFERENCES.

PART III RETHINKING THE BOUNDARIES AND POSSIBILITIESOF POSTMODERNISM -- TEMPORALITY AND OLD AGE:A POSTMODERN CRITIQUE -- INTRODUCTION -- SYMBOLIC CONTROL AND TIME -- MANIFESTATIONS OF SYMBOLIC CONTROL -- Death and Anxiety -- Utility and Decline -- Role Theory and Meaning -- ALTERNATIVE TEMPORAL IMAGERY: BEYOND MECHANICISM -- EXPERIENTIAL TIME AND EMBODIED AGING -- Death and the Affirmation of Life -- Local Entropy and Redeploying Utility -- Meaning without Roles -- CONCLUSION -- REFERENCES -- UNDERSTANDING AGING BODIES: A POSTMODERNDIALOGUE ON BIO-MEDICINE, BODY ANDCULTURAL REPRESENTATIONS OF IDENTITY -- INTRODUCTION -- EXISTENTIAL BODIES -- TOWARDS A POSTMODERN GERONTOLOGY OF THE BODY -- CONCLUSION -- REFERENCES -- AFTER POSTMODERNISM:TOWARDS AN EVOLUTIONARY SOCIOLOGY -- INTRODUCTION -- THE SELF-REFERENTIAL OBJECTION -- DECORATIVE' SOCIOLOGY AND THE CULTURAL TURN -- GENETIC FATALISM AND THE OVERSOCIALISED GAZE -- INCORPORATING THE BIOLOGICAL VARIABLE -- CONCLUSION -- REFERENCES -- (DIS)INTERRING POSTMODERNISMOR A CRITIQUE ON THE POLITICAL ECONOMYOF CONSUMER CHOICE -- INTRODUCTION -- ON THE PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF KNOWLEDGE -- THEORISING CONSUMER SOCIETY -- CONSUMER CHOICE: RHETORIC AND REALITY -- THE PUBLIC SPHERE AND CONSUMER CHOICE -- ON THE CONSEQUENCES OF CONSUMPTION -- CONSUMER CHOICE: EXCESS AND WASTE -- CONCLUDING REMARKS: CHOOSING DIFFERENTLY -- REFERENCES -- INDEX.