Traces the origins of post-modernism in the humanities and describes how its key concepts are being applied to, and are restructuring, the social sciences. This book shows how the post-modern challenge to reason and rational organization radiates across academic fields.

The theme of reflexivity has come to be central to social analysis. This book features three social thinkers who discuss the implications of 'reflexive modernization' for social and cultural theory. It includes sections where the authors offer critical appraisals of each other's viewpoints, giving a synthetic conclusion to the work as a whole.

Shows postmodernity as the social condition of the twenty-first century. This book explores postmodernity as a theoretical concept and examines its historical roots and cultural dimensions. It pays attention to processes of globalization as well as to the postmodern view of cyberspace, cyborgs, and the body as a site of moral conflict.