Postmodern Social Theory Essay

Postmodern social theory is a field which is both difficult to define and rejects being defined. Postmodern theory is largely concerned with the ways our perceptions and reality are constructed. Postmodern social theory is a field of diverse and at times contradictory ideas that try to describe the relations of characters to society of the infrastructures and information age. Social reality is distinct from objective reality and individual subjective reality because it refers to the socially constructed nature of most of our shared institutions, beliefs and values. Social reality can be thought of as the sum of the social constructs in a society, or as the result of the social interactions between individuals within a society. Various authors have pursued to overcome this difficulty by trusting on common characteristics of various postmodern theories; also others have defined the field by those who work in it. Many have evaded any attempts to define it at all. Nevertheless of which of these methods one takes, however, there is no denying that postmodern social theory was at one time a booming presence in sociology. Despite this â€Å"death† of postmodern theory, however, its short life has had profound effects on the way social theorists do theory, and I think that it will, in no doubt, continue to have such an effect for a long time to come. There is also no denying that that time has passed and that now postmodern social theory is little more than a memory of a past era in social thought. Conclusion Postmodern social theory discards the desires and skills of modern social theory, moving away from grand descriptions, rational theorizing and towards a deconstruction of general truths, a decentering that is attuned to difference and locality.