What is postmodernism? Postmodernism is defined as a set of quite different social science theories. Some are highly affirmative, looking at positive aspects of complexity, progress, and technologization of life and work. Others are more skeptical looking at the dark side of claims of progress since 16th century Enlightenment, and the impact of technology, such as in biotechology, and cyberization. There are quite radical positions by Baudrillard (claiming all is simulacra), and Lyotard (claiming incredulity to all modern narratives of science, progress, etc). Less radical are postmodern approaches that combine with Critical Theory (Frankfurt School, before Habermas). Critical postmodernism contends some modern narratives, such as ethics, is worth retaining, while managerialism (manager's monologic perspective), for example, needs to be balanced with labor and environmental perspectives. (D. Boje, Feb 20 2007)
Critical
Postmodern Ringhas
been growing steadily as people add more links. Most are sites have some
text explaining their critical postmodern position. Since Leonard
Koscianski’s art did not, I asked to explain the connection of his art
to “critical postmodern.”Press
here to see what he had to say.
Critical postmodern is the nexus of critical theory,
postcolonialism, critical pedagogy and postmodern theory (See Tamara,
Journal of Critical Postmodern Organization Science). It is a growing
field of study that is moving beyond the supposedly "radical postmodern"
positions of Lyotard and Baudrillard by recognizing the interplay of grand narratives
of modernity with the spectacularity of virtuality and hyper-competitiveness
that is the basis of global predatory late modern and postmodern-capitalism,
and the new forms transcorporate-empire, the postindustrial supply and distribution
chains addicted to sweatshops, wedded to postmodern identity-formation
through the age of virtuality and advertising, such that we no long discern
real from phantasm. Radical postmodern theory is not a tautology, and
we can explore the differences between many critical postmodernisms.
Some postmodern theory is conservative and neo-liberal, so
"radical postmodern theory" is not a tautology.
(6-2-2001 - Steve Best)
In our post-11adventure and our moves toward global war, there is
no better time to explore critical postmodern narrative theory.
My Perspective on Critical Postmodernisms
My philosophical approach is critical postmodern narrativity, one
that combines narrative ethics with critical postmodern theory (Boje,
1995, 2000). This means, I see myself as a consumer of narratives, as
complicit in the working conditions of labor in the global supply
chain; I view my food choices as connected to the plight of animals in
the food chain; and I view my life style as answerable to the world's
need for sustainable choices (Boje, 2001a). I diverge from postmodern
theories that seek to limit being to what is "socially
constructed." Social construction theory (or
interpretivism) is what many think of as postmodern, and that is
dangerous, since it leaves out any consideration of the material
conditions of the political economy. I prefer Debord to
Baudrillard, and to combine Marx's focus on the material conditions
with Guy Debord's (1967) Society of the Spectacle, as the basis of
critical postmodern theory. Critical postmodern theory also argues
that there is a material condition. The Holocaust did happen, genocide
of indigenous people continues, as does the slaughterhouse of animal
murder. The postmodern world is often quite a violent one, and I
am answerable to try to minimize it, and not participate in it, and
find a more festive path (See
Festivalism for study guides on interplay of spectacle with
carnivalesque resistance, and festive alternatives that are mostly
corrupted in spectacle). I am a champion of vegetarian
capitalism (Boje, 2001f), but in the current post-11 age, the forces
of West and East fundamentalism, marginalize philosophies of
non-violence, and beliefs in Ahimsa. Vegetarian capitalism is
one of many critical postmodern approaches to theory and life-praxis.
The purpose of this piece is to explore the differences in postmodern
theories.
What is Critical Postmodern Theory? In a 'Critical
Postmodern Manifesto' Boje, Fitzgibbons, and Steingard (1996: 90-1)
argues that critical postmodern theory is about the "play of
differences of micropolitical movements and impulses of ecology,
feminism, multiculturalism, and spirituality without any unifying
demand for theoretical integration or methodological
consistency." Critical postmodernism is theorized as a
mid-range theory exploring the middle between "epoch
postmodernism, epistemological postmodernism, and critical
modernism" (p. 64). Critical postmodern theory is epochal in the
sense that there is a postmodern turn (Best & Kellner, 1997) from
modern to postmodern, but it is still in its infancy (Boje,
Fitzgibbons, & Steingard, 1996: 64). Where there are
"as yet, no postmodern organizations" there are examples of
postmodern discourse embedded in the play of differences (Tamara) of
premodern, modern, and postmodern discourses at Disney, as well as
Nike (Boje, 1995, 2001b, c). And in the postmodern turn as well as the
postmodern adventure of postmodern warfare in the Gulf War, and the
new war on terrorism, we there is a dark side to postmodern, that is
missed by non-critical approaches to postmodern (Best & Kellner,
2001; Boje, 2001d, e).
Using methods of deconstruction, theatrical, and narrative
analysis, I think it is possible to de-code the layers of public
relations spectacle that heroize global virtual corporations (and
since the 9-11, the global war machine), while distancing
transnational corporations from responsibility over their far-flung
global supply chains, where particularly exploitive conditions seem to
flourish (Boje, 1995, 2000, 2001d, e). As an academic I
prefer a more non-violent capitalism to the current one, and would
like to become more conscious of my connection to the animal, plant,
and human, and material world. Consult http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje
for more on this line of thinking.
Non-Critical Postmodern Approaches: There are many versions
of postmodern theory. These range from the extreme positions of
Baudrillard (rejecting real in favor of simulation and implosion),
Lyotard (rejecting all grand narrative in favor of networks of local
ones) to approaches by Best and Kellner (1991, 1997, 2001) that
integrate the work of Marx and the spectacle writing of Guy
Debord. The critical postmodern approaches incorporate a concern
with how systems of ideas affect the material condition. For example
in the Tamara Manifesto (Boje, 2001a), I am concerned with how
we can explore the interplay of critical theory, critical pedagogy,
and postcolonialism, and their relationship to critical narrative
approaches.
Other Approaches: Critical postmodern has a number of
competing definitions and perspectives. Most include Marx and
Nietzsche, but others are decidedly pomophobic (seeing the partnering
of critical and postmodern as somehow responsible for all that is
wrong with the world). In other words, postmodern has its
affirmative and dark side. For the past ten years, I have been
studying the dark side of postmodern, the ways in which corporations
such as Nike, Disney (Boje, 1995; Boje & Dennehy, 1993), Nike
Corporation (2001b), and Las Vegas casinos (Boje, 2001c) pass
themselves off as postmodern corporations, as virtual zones of
pleasure. Yet, beyond the virtual corporate core of the Nike campus in
Beaverton, Oregon are 720,000 (mostly) women working in some 730
sweatshop factories in pre-Tayloristic work conditions. Beneath the
postmodern architecture and "Happy Kingdom" of Disney, is
the mechanistic assembly lines, the Tayloristic story production
machine, and the women of Haiti, and now China that make the garment
and toys Disney sells in theme parks and Disney stores. Postmodern
casino resorts fashion a Paris, an Egyptian Pyramid, or a Venice more
real than the real, and use Circus acts, street carnival, and
the rides and exhibits of a Disney, as well as the mechanistic of
McDonaldization to attract entire families to participate in gambling
and sex addiction. In short, the postmodern has its dark side and is
in strange hybridity with both modern factory, and pre-modern
sweatshop and carnivalesque.
On the plus side, critical postmodern theory is a way to analyze
the fractured and tortured lives of the voiceless who toil beneath the
virtual glitz of Nike, Disney and Pairs, Paris. Critical postmodern
theory is a way to get a clearer understanding of the relation between
modern and postmodern, and take a Deleuzian journey into the middle of
the hybridity of per-modern, modern, and postmodern (Boje, 1995). A
critical postmodern project can move us beyond exploitation, racism,
sexism, and abuse by reframing and restorying organization theory away
from its patriarchal lingo in order to reaffirm social justice,
equality, democracy, and the wonders of multiplicity (Boje, 1995:
1004). In a critical postmodern theory, such as Tamara,
we can explore the 'micro-practices' of organizational life, as well
as contextualize the stories of the marginal Other, within the
workings of a postindustrial supply and distribution chain addicted to
sweatshops, and the cover-stories produced and distributed by the
postmodern storytelling organizations that turn out consumer
identities and spectacles for mass consumption (Boje, 1995:
998-2). On the plus side, there is always resistance to the
forces of global and individual domination and exploitation that stem
from the strange hybridity of premodern, modern, and postmodern
organizing amalgams.
The following are totalizing and reductive definitions of an
inherently ambiguous and plural postmodern field:
"Critical postmodern" theory would recognize the
multiplicity and multi-dimensionality that makes up our
organizational and consumer experience of ambiguity, conflict and
discontinuity, and can inform more useful ways of working
and thinking in this postmodern age (Boje, Fitzgibbons, and
Steingard, 1996: 64).
There are other definitions: Critical postmodern...
"fuses what may be considered the three great materialisms
of Modernity--Marx, Nietzsche and Freud--into a critical
postmodern cartography" (Smith
and Tedesco-Gronbeck, 1995). And...
... critical postmodern spatial theory privileges the lived
spatialities of left-margined communities as sites of
socio-spatial critique. A postmodern identity politics enacts
critical postmodern spatial theory by nurturing the development
of, and solidarity between, 'counterpublics', which are subaltern
community spaces where private spatialities of alienation are
brought to public discourse (Allen,
1999).
Some definitions are normative notions of critical postmodern
theory
... Shaping a new democracy, understanding the role
institutions play, and attending to how knowledge is reproduced
are all goals of a critical postmodern pedagogy (Nancy
Diekelmann, 1999).
... researcher’s perceptions, experiences, language, culture,
gender, race, class, age and personal history and so on, shape the
political and ideological stance that researchers take into their
research (Eva
Dobozy).
... The task of critical postmodern thinking is the dismantling
of narratives to expose their hidden interests and oppressive
intentions-whereupon the old assumptions about foundational
reality will be abandoned (Fitzgerald,
1996).
Discussion
Critical postmodern theory is a rich variety of perspectives that
do not accept the total rejection of the grand narrative such as in
the work of Lyotard, nor do they abandon the material condition by
being seduced into the vortex of hyper-real as in the work of
Baudrillard. Rather, as Best and Kellner (1991, 1997, 2001) explore in
critical postmodern philosophy, we are looking at a critical
postmodern theory that is up to the task of exploring the postmodern
turn that never transcends modern, and the postmodern adventure that
in its darker manifestation protects predatory transnational
corporations that pursue the Biotech Century at the expense of human
life and biodiversity (2001: 1). My own project is to
awaken the already seduced organization and management theory
community of practice to the predatory global capitalism of
McDonaldization, Disneyfication, and Las Vegatization. And this
requires new forms of writing, and journals such as Tamara: Journal
of Critical Postmodern Organization Science, that are prepared to
say there is a material condition and a postmodern rampant consumerism
as well as a predatory global capitalism, and pockets of
resistance. Critical postmodern theory can also mean ways of
deconstructing the post-11 war machine (Boje, 2001, d, e).
It is time to move beyond the naive constructions of postmodern
theory that are devoid of any discussion of the material conditions of
Holocaust, slaughterhouse and post-11 war. There is a postmodern turn,
but it has not left behind all grand narratives. Being postmodern does
not mean surrounding ethical claims. Critical postmodern theory
can analyze the dark side of the postmodern adventure, the heroic
quest for world war of Western imperialism with premodern
fundamentalism. There is a dark side the the endless replays of
11th event, that constructs a specter that leads to mass trauma and a
rhetoric of good versus evil, that legitimates global war. There is a
play of differences in the forces of resistance in East as well as
West. The spectacle socially constructs narrative characters, plots,
and scripts outcomes that are produced via power holders defending
corporate and State economic interests. Narratives that posit a
"totality" of people in the West versus another
"totality" of people in the East need to be deconstructed to
reveal the play of differences and emergent forces of resistance to
such grand narration. The social constructions in the war speeches
contain contradictions and dualities that become scripted
products. Our critical postmodern praxis is to free up the
forces of resituation and reconstruction in ways that unleash ethical
commitment and non-violent resistance to the war machine. We
call for critical-reflexive critical-postmodern analysis of the waves
of storytelling that create the self-organizing emergence of missile
launch. Storytelling is a tool in the hands of the forces of the
political economy, the war industry, and the non-critical
academy.
Conclusions
A critical postmodern manifesto resists the reduction of all
postmodern theories into the camp of naive interpretativism or
relativistic social construction. There is a beyond good and evil.
There is a myth of Western capitalist Biotech progress. And there has
not been a total displacement of premodern discourse by (systemic or
critical) modern, or by (critical and uncritical) postmodern epochs,
theories or praxis. History is in its grand narrative a three-act play
of epochs, but in its material conditions, alternative histories
(microstoria) is de-selected for mass consumption. Postmodern
theory in it quest to vanquish systemic modernism, has ignored the
contributions of critical postmodern and the dark side of the virtual
postmodern hyperreality. We do not advocate the dismissive of all
grand narratives, and we think that ethical standards can be worked
out in networks of local discourse. As we said in 1996, in the
Critical Postmodern Manifesto (Boje, Fitzgibbons, & Steingard,
1996: 90-91), "Critical postmodernism is a radical disjunction
from the systemic modernism discourse" of Taylorism,
reengineering, and structural functionalism. Critical postmodernism is
also "a play of differences of the micropolitical movements and
impulses of ecology, feminism, multiculturalism, and spirituality
without and unifying demand for theoretical integration or
methodological consistency" (p. 90). Critical postmodern theory
is a middle between critical modern, critical pedagogy, critical
feminism, critical hermeneutics, critical-ethnomethod,
critical-ecology, and post-colonial theories (p. 90-91). Instead
of Baudrillard, we invoke Debord's analysis of the spectacle of late
capitalism, and its Frankenstein marriage of postindustrial global
supply chains with sweatshops, and the fetish of postmodern consumer
identity formations facilitated by NikeTown, Disneyfication,
McDonaldization, and Las Vegatization. The Holocaust did happen,
the heroic story of Columbus is a fabrication of Washington
Irving, animal slaughter is covered over by advertising by feminizing
'meat,' and the macho of carnivores, and it is time we unplug from the
Matrix.
What does this mean for praxis. For me, it means the pursuit of
non-violent alternatives to the violence of predatory capitalism,
deconstructing spectacle, and resisting premodern fundamentalism.
Praxis is taking action, not just writing more theory. That is for
pretenders to critical or critical postmodern. There needs in
addition to theory, to be a life style of action, more than cynicism
and skepticism, there needs, in my view, to be action. Mine may differ
from yours. For me, it is visit our local slaughterhouse, examine our
food and clothing habits, spend our Spring break in a sweatshop,
take a trip to the land of the Other, and conduct an action of
non-violent resistance to the dominant narratives and discourse. In
whatever praxis, disabuse yourself of the notion that postmodern is
without ethical or critical purchase or answerability.
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2000. http://www.zianet.com/boje/vc/vegetarian_capitalism.htm
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