Postmodern Approaches to Sociological Theory

Sociology, a relatively new academic discipline, was established by 19th century theorists' intent on developing a new social science that would bring the certainty of science and mathematics to a new set of problems introduced by the rise of industrialization and the modern city. Given the timing of its development, sociology was shaped by the ideals of the modern world view. This perspective included a general belief in universalism, progress, institutions, and the certainty of the scientific method. During the second half of the 20th century a growing number of theorists began to question the validity of the fundamental assumptions of modern era. These anti-modern, or postmodern, theorists have had a significant influence on the study of society. This article gives an overview of the three general themes in the postmodern critique of the modernity and presents how ideas from these critiques have influenced various postmodern approaches to sociological theory.

Keywords Critical Theory; Cultural Industry; Différance; Meta-Narrative; Modernity; Paradigms; Positivism; Postmodernity; Social Facts

Postmodern Approaches to Sociological Theory

Overview

Sociology was founded and formed within the ideals of modernity. Theory in sociology is an account of the world that goes beyond what we can see and measure. It embraces a set of interrelated definitions and relationships that organizes our concepts and understanding of the world (Marshall, 1998). Early social thinkers adopted the dominant themes of modernity, universalism, progress, institutions, and the certainty of the scientific method, and applied them to emerging new social order. Saint-Simon (1760-1825) seized on the ideas of social progress based on the writings of Rousseau and Franklin and the certainty of Newtonian physics to propose a new social order based on science (Booth, 1871). Auguste Comte (1798-1857), who coined the term sociology, adapted a philosophy of mathematics to a new science of politics that he believed could positively identify the scientific laws underpinning society and apply these laws to the progress of humanity (Pickering, 1993). Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) adapted ideas from Darwin and recommended a social order based on the survival of the fittest (Francis, 2007). These early social theorists grounded the new discipline of sociology in the dominant principles of modernity. Since that time sociology has expanded as a discipline and developed its own methodologies to substantiate its claim of being a social science. Through its development the underlying assumptions of mainstream sociological theory remained anchored in the universalism, progress, institutions, and the certainty of the scientific method.

What is Postmodernism?

Postmodernism is a wide sweeping reaction to the modern. It is not an organized movement and many of the theorists and writers identified as postmodernist refute the label. Initially a movement reacting to modern architecture and modernism in art, postmodernism as a critique of the modern has spread to every department in academia. Postmodernists in sociology have focused their critique on modernity, its assumptions, institutions, economic order, and culture. They believe modernity has ended and that we are in the era of postmodernity (Giddens, 1990). Because of the fragmented nature of the postmodernism it's not possible to address all the elements of the postmodern critique. However, three broad postmodern themes that have had a significant influence on sociological theory can be identified:

• A critique of positivism.

• The theme of institutions and domination

• The critique of meta-narratives and language

Positivism is an approach to the social that maintains knowledge can only be acquired through value-free observations and the use of proper scientific or mathematical methodologies. The Postmodern critique claims that there is no such thing as a value-free observation, that science cannot be applied to the social in the same manner it is applied to nature, and that knowledge does indeed arise from other sources than observation and analysis.

Postmodern writers address the power of institutions, their ability to discipline, how they advantage few while silencing many, and how they separate people from their needs.

Postmodern theorist have also attacked meta-narratives, grand theories that claim to capture universal principles and explain experience and the order of things, for being no longer believable in a time when people are aware of their differences, diversities, and irreconcilable needs (Lyotard, 2002). Language is oppressive, language is power, language carries with it a history and yet is contextually anchored in the moment, and perhaps the most famous Postmodern critique is that meaning in language cannot be known, but must be deferred.

These postmodern critiques attack many of the fundamental paradigms that nurtured sociology in its infancy and still form the bedrock of dominant sociological theory today. They also have provided new approaches to sociological theory and the basis for greater diversification research.

Applications

Postmodernism & Positivism

Positivism is a system for understanding society developed by Auguste Comte. Comte believed that society evolved through three stages: theological, metaphysical, and the positive. In the positive stage society would no longer depend on abstract rationalizations; rather, individuals would be able to gather knowledge through observation and affirm this observation through the positive (scientific) method. This process would allow individuals to gain the knowledge needed to govern themselves (Comte, 1988). Over time, two other ideas became associated with positivism. The first was the idea of social facts and the second was the idea of value-free observation. Social facts is a term coined by Emile Durkheim (1858 - 1917). A social fact is a social practice, rule, duty, or sanction that exists outside the individual. Durkheim believed a positivist social science could study social facts and uncover universal social laws. These laws could then be used to judge a society's well-being (Morrison, 2006). Though Comte certainly never specifically called for value-free observation, it is implied in his approach. It was Max Weber (1864 - 1920) who would call for a "value neutral" science in sociology. His idea became an identifying characteristic of positivism.

Critical Theory

The postmodern criticism of positivism has been anchored in a school of social thought called critical theory. Critical theory proposes that sociology should not only analyze society, but work to change it. Max Horkheimer (1895 - 1973), who first defined critical theory, was one of the early critics of positivism. Horkheimer had no quarrel with the role of observation in the social sciences. He was as much of an empiricist as Comte. However, positivism elevated observation and scientific method as the lone viable source for knowledge of the world. For Horkheimer this reduced the world to a world of "facts." These "facts" were mere creations of the devices of scientists. These "facts" could not be questioned. Though the "facts" were verifiable they could not be shown to be good, bad, true, or untrue. Furthermore, positivism only reproduced what already existed. It could not imagine a new future or new possibilities (Stirk, 1997). Positivism could not speak to the truth of art, literature, and music.

A decade later Horkheimer would identify positivism and its controlled mechanism as the instrument that fostered the rise of technical processes that objectified nature and humans, allowing both to enter seamlessly into the all-inclusive economic apparatus. Horkheimer believed that it was treating people like objects in the mechanics of society that allowed the Holocaust to happen (Adorno & Horkheimer, 1972). On the issue of value-free observation, Horkheimer argued that it only leads to objectify humans and the results are undesirable. Herbert Marcuse (1898 - 1979), a younger associate of Horkheimer, argued that value judgments simply could not be separated from reason. Who we are, our lived experience, cultures, race, and ethnicity informs all of our judgments and how we reason. Value-free judgments are therefore, at their very core, unreasonable (Marcuse, 1991).

Over the years the term positivist has fallen out of favor in sociological circles, yet traces of positivism remain. Critical theory as a postmodern critique has influenced a new generation of sociologists that work to combine the methods and theory of sociology with an understanding of the biases the observer brings to a project and the context of people being studied. Though critical theory itself remains a small contingent among sociologist the rise of feminist theory and the use of personal narratives and life stories in sociology can be traced back to critical theorists' critique of positivism.

Sociology, Institutions & Power

Michel Foucault

Michel Foucault (1926 - 1984) is one of the few postmodern theorists that have enjoyed a considerable following among sociologists. Although Foucault rejected the postmodernist label, his contributions to the postmodern critiques are considerable. Perhaps his most provocative and influential work centered on the dire dynamic between institutions and other forms of power and knowledge that create new forms of domination (Best & Kellner, 1991). Foucault dismisses the idea of progress and replaces it with a history of one type of violence, such an uncivilized humanity, being replaced by groups of rules that create new institutions of violence and domination (Foucault, 1979). These rules are not universal or absolute. Rather they are unique to their history, context, and domain. Though they are specific they are also always changing. These rules determine social order and practices (Foucault, 1972). What Foucault does in his work is try to show how the laws that govern order and give rise to powerful institutions have their origin not in universal truths or historical meta-narratives, but in specific places in time. Foucault studies the development of hospitals, asylums, and prisons to show how institutions entwine themselves in a network of institutions and use the specific knowledge and language to coerce and discipline society. Foucault believes this discipline not only silences the masses, but also regulates and subjugates their bodies.

Marcuse, Cultural Industry & Domination

Marcuse continued his attack on positivism by broadening the critique to the modern industrial state. Marcuse saw the expansion of mass production, distribution, and administered economic coordination as a force of domination capable of manipulating, if not completely abridging, our own conception of our human needs and our ability to fight or refute the system (Rose, 1990). Marcuse attacked two institutions of the industrial state: the cultural industry and administration. The cultural industry, a term coined by Theodor Adorno (1903-1969) and Horkheimer, is a system of mass produced popular culture that uses consumption and low forms of pleasure to create a passive population and uses advertising to generate false needs. Administration is scientific production of control from a myriad of sources within the industrial state. Government and business both work to administer living. The administered life is the good life. Work and leisure are manufactured by administration in order to increase consumption. What need is there for self-determination when administration can offer the "good life" (Marcuse, 1991)? One way of looking at what Marcuse has theorized is to see his work as a blending of “soma,” a pleasure drug given to the masses, from Huxley's Brave New World, and Big Brother always watching from Orwell's 1984. As a postmodern critique of domination Marcuse takes the ideas of progress and scientific method, as embodied in industrial technology, to task.

The postmodern critique of institutions and domination has included critiques of the patriarchy, imperialism (geographic, cultural, and economic), religion, classical music, and the Western canon of philosophy and literature just to name a few. Sociology has, to varying degrees, found a place in the discipline for most of these critiques.

Sociology, Meta-Narratives, & Language

Jean-Francois Lyotard (1924-1998) fully embraced postmodernism. He opposed universals and positivism. Though he admitted to the progress of the sciences he wrote that the validity of knowledge is found in the practical subject - humanity. Science does not represent the totality of knowledge. Science has always existed in addition to other kinds of knowledge. As an example, when discussing issues of the state, science is of little use in knowing what is just or good. Of all Lyotard's arguments against modernity perhaps his position on meta-narratives is best known. Lyotard argued that meta-narratives were the defining attribute of modernity. These grand totalizing theories that claimed to encapsulate the world and the metaphysical were no longer tenable in this age of technology and mass communication. Humanity is too aware of the world's diversity and our differences. Lyotard (2002) suggests that we break up meta-narratives and begin to see the mass of individual narratives located at specific nodal points yet woven together in a fabric of relations.

Kuhn's Paradigms

Perhaps the most striking argument against the meta-narrative came from Thomas Kuhn (1922 - 1996). What was so critical about Kuhn's assault was that the subject of his writing was the practices and works of scientists. Instead of using the term meta-narrative or grand theories Kuhn used the term paradigms. He defined paradigms as theories and their historical practices and achievements that supply a foundation for scientists, as well as problems to solve. For a theory to be a paradigm it must seem better than other theories and provide unresolved problems for scientists (Kuhn, 1996). Paradigms created the lens which scientists looked through. Their work could only be understood by looking through this lens. Paradigms forced scientists to work on a small range of problems, over long periods of time, in detail otherwise unimaginable. The paradigm, whether Newton's physics or Franklin's electricity, leaves the scientist with the mopping up of all the small details or what Kuhn calls 'normal science.' Kuhn argues that scientific facts are little more than a solved puzzle within the paradigm. When a paradigm shifts, like from Newtonian physics to Einstein's relativity, scientific facts thought to be knowledge or truth must change.

Wittgenstein, Baudrillard & Language

The postmodern critique of language is generally traced back to the later writings of Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889 -1951). Wittgenstein attempted to remove language from the meta-narratives of modernity. He insisted language was guided by rules. But the rules he wrote about were not universal laws that guided language. Instead they were rules that arose from a particular "form of life" (Wittgenstein, 1968). The ultimate test of rules and language was whether they work in their context and were useful. Wittgenstein does not believe the meaning of a word is directly related to an object. Instead the meaning is derived from the definition which is derived from other words. If a new animal is encountered it is not given a name and definition that is directly related to the nature of the animal. Instead it is compared to other familiar animals. The word for this animal, and eventually its definition, will be drawn from the resemblances it has with other animals. Wittgenstein maintained that words, their definitions and meanings, have long histories that evolve out of these resemblances ever changing and creating new words and meaning.

Jean Baudrillard (1929- 2007), expanded this idea with his idea of passwords. Not only do passwords have these rich histories and relationships, but they are also vehicles and passers of ideas. Harold Garfinkel (b. 1917) expanded these critiques into conversation. Garfinkel (1967) wrote that everyday conversations are creative processes that are leveraged by individuals to create a sense of order and meaning (Garfinkel 1967). Garfinkel wrote about the reflexive nature of conversations, individuals, and locales. Reflexivity is a circular relationship that informs meaning and self-identity between conversationalists. All of these thinkers saw words, conversations, and language as something quite apart from the universal laws and meta-narratives of modernity.

Derrida's Différance

Jacques Derrida (1930 - 2004) was the rock star of the postmodern movement. He is the most cited scholar by those who support, as well as those who attack, postmodernism. Derridaian terminology has seeped into every part of popular culture and every academic discipline. Derrida proposed that texts could be deconstructed or taken apart by elements within the text. He also continued in the vein of Wittgenstein and others with his concept différance. Différance is from the French word différer which means both to differ from and to defer. Derrida believed that meaning in the text is always deferred. In order to understand the meaning of a word one must turn to different words that signify something else altogether. This difference forces one to defer meaning. Additionally, the particulars of context are unknowable (Derrida 1985). From this position Derrida has not only questioned the knowledge of modernity, but also the knowledge proposed by those who critique modernity. Richard Rorty (1931 - 2007) added to the postmodern critique of language an ironic twist. Rorty (1989) wrote that a theorist's responsibility was to search for and construct a system of truth or what he called the final vocabulary. The irony is that the theorist doubts their own final vocabulary and sees it as no closer to the truth than any other final vocabulary. Thus they continue to search and construct.

Other Postmodern Approaches to Sociology

What does a postmodern approach to sociological theory look like? No one agrees. In the age of reality television, social media, and blogs it is easy to see the postmodern as a methodology of biography (Agger, 2002). Pavlich (1995) has written that Foucault's genealogical approach, a practice of digging into and disrupting the unchallenged histories and meta-narratives of Western civilization in order to unearth forgotten voices, might be a useful methodology in constructing a postmodern sociology. Perhaps embracing the biased observer and putting aside the Cartesian dualism that allowed modern thinkers to erroneously imagine an observer quite apart from their opinions would be a step toward a postmodern approach to sociological theory (Murphy, 1988). The power of conversations and the reflexive nature of the individual interactions with others and institutions may offer elements for a postmodern approach to sociological theory (Platt, 1989).

Many smaller schools of sociological theory, such as feminist, queer, and specific race and ethnic theorists are drawn to postmodermism because they stand in opposition to the dominant institution. Situated thus they have proven quite creative in employing postmodern perspectives in their approaches to sociological theory. Some feminist and queer theorists use an approach to theory centered on Foucault's analysis of how powerful institutions use language. The argument is that not only gender, but sex, sexuality, and ultimately identity is constructed by the language of male dominated institutions. Postmodern theorists working on race often adapt the critique of institutions from critical theory and add the concept of an increasingly fragmenting society, another significant postmodern critique, to attack a history of administration and propose new ways to construct truth within previously marginalized communities. There is no one true postmodern approach to sociological theory or postmodern school of sociology. There are many approaches, each specific to the theorists it serves.

Conclusion

The criticism of postmodernism, the challenge in getting postmodern work published in leading sociological journals, and the difficulty of obtaining tenure may effectively keep postmodernism out of the sociological mainstream. Postmodernism has been attacked for being meaningless, nonsensical, intentionally obscure, relativist, and ultimately impossible to understand. It has been taken to task for not being a theory at all. To take it one step further, Baudrillard thought a postmodern approach to sociological theory was really beside the point. Today information technologies has replaced the "social" with the "mass" and made sociology, in Baudrillard's opinion, altogether irrelevant (Pavlich, 1995). The central problem is, according Jurgen Habermas (b. 1928), that attacks by critical theorists and postmodernists have gone too far. Habermas, who is considered a critical theorist, understands the attack on modernity. Yet he writes that the project of modernity is worth completing. Modernity can be redeemed and obstacles to communication and domination can be removed (Habermas, 1982). The democracy imagined in the modern dialectic can be achieved (Habermas, 1981). In his later work Habermas would place postmodernism within the project of modernity, sort of like a lower branch on the tree of knowledge.

Despite the criticism postmodernism has received from the sociological establishment it is clear the postmodern critique has had a lasting influence on the discipline. The diversity now seen in sociological journals, course offerings, and faculty in some part can be attributed to the influence of postmodern discourses. The language of postmodernism is ubiquitous in the texts of sociology. The fragmentation of sociology, the breaking up of a dominant discourse into many discourses has, despite Baudrillard's assertion of sociology's demise, broadened and strengthened the relevancy of the discipline. And though there is no single coherent postmodern approach to sociological theory there is a significant postmodern influence on much of sociological theory.

Terms & Concepts

Critical Theory: A school of thought in social theory closely tied with the Frankfurt School of Social Research. The principles of critical theory are at their core anti-positivism. Critical theory takes exception with the idea that observation and scientific method is the sole source of knowledge. Social inquiry should balance theory with social science. It should also take into account practical aspects of social relationships and discourse. In the end social inquiry is not only about analysis, but also about changing society for the better.

Cultural Industry: A term coined by Adorno and Horkheimer. The cultural industry is a system of mass produced popular culture that uses consumption and low forms of pleasure to create a passive population and uses advertising to generate false needs.

Différance: Derrida's concept that the understanding of the meaning of any word must be deferred. From the French word différer which means both to differ from and to defer. In order to understand the meaning of a word one must turn to different words that signify something else altogether. This difference forces one to defer meaning. Derrida believed that meaning in the text is always deferred.

Meta-narrative: A grand theory that claims to encapsulate and explain all historical knowledge and experience.

Modernity: An era that began with the rise of industrialization. Modernity is associated with systems of mass production and distribution, large power institutions, and a scientific mastery of nature.

Paradigms: Thomas Kuhn, in his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, defined paradigms as the historical practices and achievements that supply a foundation, as well as problems to solve, for scientists.

Positivism: An approach to knowledge that claims direct observation and scientific method is the only valid path to knowledge of the world.

Postmodernity: A criticism of modernity and a description of the current era believed to have followed modernity. As a criticism postmodernity is focused on institutions, economic systems, and the continuing fragmentation of authority.

Social Facts: A term coined by Durkheim. Social facts are social practices, rules, duties, or sanctions that exist outside of the individual. Durkheim believed a positivist social science could study social facts and uncover universal social laws. These laws could then be used to judge a society's well-being.

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Suggested Reading

Jameson, F. (2001). Postmodernism, or, The cultural logic of late capitalism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Klosko, G. (2013). The Oxford handbook of the history of political philosophy. New York: Oxford University Press.

Nicholson, L. J. (Ed.). (1991). Feminism/Postmodernism (Thinking Gender). New York: Routledge.

Sarup, M. (1993). An introductory guide to post-structuralism and postmodernism. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.