This text offers an historical sketch of the development of postmodern social theory, major criticisms of it, and recent efforts to move beyond it. It focuses on the work of such leading postmodernists as Michael Foucault, Jean Baudrillard, Jacques Derrida, Jean-Francois Lyotard, and on contemporary alternatives/reactions/interventions by such theorists as Anthony Giddens and Ulrich Beck. American contributions by Daniel Bell and Frederic Jameson...