Undoing culture: Globalization, postmodernism and identity

M Featherstone - Undoing Culture, 1995 - torrossa.com
Undoing Culture, 1995torrossa.com
The various chapters of this book have been written over the last five or six years. Most of
them started their lives as conference papers or essays written for edited collections. They
have been selected from the range of papers written in this period because they have a
certain coherence in terms of the themes they seek to address. In many ways they represent
a deepening and extension of some of the issues developed in Consumer Culture and
Postmodernism(1991a). Yet, rather than directly addressing postmodernism, they seek to …
The various chapters of this book have been written over the last five or six years. Most of them started their lives as conference papers or essays written for edited collections. They have been selected from the range of papers written in this period because they have a certain coherence in terms of the themes they seek to address. In many ways they represent a deepening and extension of some of the issues developed in Consumer Culture and Postmodernism(1991a). Yet, rather than directly addressing postmodernism, they seek to explore the grounds for postmodernism via two main concerns. The first is the formation and deformation of the cultural sphere which addresses the question of the autonomization of culture and the type of autonomous person (the artist and intellectual as hero) associated with this process. The second concerns the process of globalization which I argue provides the wider intellectual context for many of the themes associated with postmodernism.
My work in both areas has been sustained through the support and numerous discussions of these issues with many friends and colleagues. I have a special debt to my friends on the editorial board of the journal Theory, Culture & Society. Josef Bleicher, Roy Boyne, Mike Hepworth, Scott Lash, Roland Robertson and Bryan S. Turner, who will recognize many of the concerns addressed here. In particular Bryan Turner, Scott Lash and Roland Robertson have in their own ways worked across the same territory I've been seeking to traverse (Roland Robertson's pioneer ing work in developing the theory of globalization needs a special mention). I would also like to acknowledge the contribution of Mike Hepworth and Roger Burrows, who both read the whole manuscript, made many helpful editing suggestions and persuaded me to take my own medicine and follow the editor's maxim: the more you cut the better it gets. In addition I must acknowledge the support of my colleagues in the Sociology, Criminology and Social Policy subject group in the School of Human Studies at the University of Teesside for both their encouragement and tolerance for some of my wilder ventures. My immediate colleagues in the Centre for the Study of Adult Life, especially Robin Bunton and Roger Burrows, who have worked together with Bryan Turner and me to found the new associate journal to TCS, Body & Society have been particularly supportive. I also have a special debt to Barbara Cox, who has worked on Theory, Culture & Society for a number of years now and has found ways of channelling all our postmodern styles of work into a
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