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[Paul Mackin]

On Tue, 12 Oct 1999, Lorentzen / Nicklaus wrote:

> Paul Mackin schrieb:
> > Has postmodernism perhaps run its course? I notice in architecture at
> > least 'postmodern' tends to get omitted. Is there something newer out
> > there that looks at all promising? What was the latest book published with
> > postmodernism in its title? Marxists are apt to be still be speaking
> > of "late capitalism." The alternative might be "later capitalism."
> 
> 
> 
>  What about "late modernity"? Since "postmodernism" is only another way of 
>  observing the consequences of functional differenciation, it is a pure 
>  semantic, not a structural phenomenon. In this sense Luhmann speaks of the "so 
>  called postmodernity".


Are you are coming down on the side of it's just more of the same and the
"changes" upon which so much attention is lavished are added refinements
is all.  Some Marxists may be satisfied with that viewpoint--no change in
ownership of the means of production having taken place and it's still
capitalism only done differently --but other folks may  feel obliged to
conclude some changes that have taken place are such that certain aspects
of life  will never be the same again, and all without the transfer of
power to the workers or anything fundamentally economic having taken place
so's it's  only a cultural revolution at best but still enough to require
a new name. Don't know about the structural/semantic distinction being at
all decidable at this point in time. It's certainly more fun to imagine
that we are really experiencing something different. Breaks the
monotony. My life experience however tells me that like everything
else the whole thing is probably being overblown.

			P.