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CHAPTER 7: STRUCTURALISM, POSTSTRUCTURALISM AND POSTMODERNISM; LIFE AT THE…
CHAPTER 7: STRUCTURALISM, POSTSTRUCTURALISM AND POSTMODERNISM; LIFE AT THE SURFACE
→ There is no clear-cut division between social constructionism, poststructuralism and postmodernism, with conflicting accounts of their relation to (or difference from) each other in the literature.
The common thread running through them is the theme that what we know, in both our 'common sense' knowledge of everyday life and our academic knowledge, is inseparable from language, social institutions and culture.
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Clear influences of structuralism, in a focus on meaning and emphasis on context - that is, on social systems rather than individuals.
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→ it moves attention to the surface; to the practices, actions, texts and utterances through which meanings and identities are created, and the distribution and role of power within these.
Poststructuralism also takes up Saussure’s understanding that meaning is relational, defined in relation to other meanings.
But where Saussure assumed that meaning was fixed within relations in a single sign system, poststructuralism emphasises the multiple relations that act to produce particular meanings in particular places at particular times.
Poststructuralism represents a distinctly different understanding of, and approach to, society than that adopted by ‘science’.
Science → an external, observable world, making sense of an objective reality.
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We cannot know the world independently of our concepts, independently of the words and ideas with which we make sense of the world.
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- Narrative ('traditional') knowledge: consists in the myths, legends and stories of a society.
a. These narratives tell us about the world and also provide their own legitimation, defining what knowledge is and why it is important, who can know, and who has authority to repeat the narrative.
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- Scientific knowledge: rests solely on denotative utterances, statements referring to verifiable or falsifiable 'facts'.
a. The people with authority to say something in science are those who have the competence to utter denotative statements that are verifiably true.
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→ Interested in understanding how language works, he developed a particular system of 'semiotics', or means of studying signs and their use.
To Saussure every word is a sign, and every sign consists of two elements:
The 'signified', which is the object or concept that the word 'points to'.
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Signifier and signified are inter-dependent → a sound is only a signifier if it relates to some concept/ object (the signified), but that concept or object can only be signified if it has a signifier, othetwise we have no means of referring to it.
The 'signifier', which is the oral component, the sound made (or in written language, the marks on the page or screen).
‘Sovereign power’ → was exerted through the public spectacle of torture and execution, instilling fear of such punishment in the population.
The development of prisons was accompanied by a shift in emphasis from punishing convicts to reforming them.
→ Foucault identified that this focus on reformation leads to a much more diffuse operation of power, more subtle yet pervasive throughout society.
This is 'disciplinary power', and it functions through three mechanisms:
- Hierarchical observation → the observation of people of low status by those of higher status.
- Normalising judgement → correction of ‘deviant’ behaviour, which is predicated on assumptions about how people should behave.
- Examination → a combination of hierarchical observation and normalising judgement.
Postmodernism rejects the idea of comprehensive, overarching explanations or ideas.
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- Rejecting grand narratives or totalising ideas entails an assertion that claims to 'truth' are groundless → there can only be multiple truths.
- Some authors interpret postmodernism as a late form of capitalism → the development of more flexible systems of production and consumption have resulted in the emergence of new cultural condition.
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- Denotative utterances: these are verifiable or falsifiable statements about things.
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- Performative utterances: these are statements that perform an act simply by being spoken.
- Prescriptive utterances: these tell people what to do.
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- Knowledge and meaning (including identity) are discursively produced.
- Knowledge, meaning and power are intertwined.
- Space is central to the distribution and exercise of power.
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A Fiat saloon car and a Jaguar have the same use value, but very different exchange values. This difference is because of sign value.
Sign value is about style, status, luxury, power and prestige. When we choose the goods we purchase, we are consumers of signs more than of objects.
→ Baudrillard argued that our consumption is not about 'needs' or 'reality', but is driven by a desire to differentiate ourselves from each other.
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- In social theory more broadly, postmodernism meant that 'space' re-emerged to prominence.
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- Postmodernism offered the possibility of a re-invigorated engagement with place, more theoretically orientated than the descriptive regional geographies of the early twentieth century.
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The systems of representation constituting society are 'a privileged order of reality', in that they are real and have explanatory power.
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Derrida argued there is no direct connection between signifier and signified.
→ meaning is always relational, dependent upon relation to (or difference from) other signs, other meanings, which in turn are dependent upon relations to others.