Social Theory After Postmodernism: Law, Production and Class

by Anthony Woodiwiss

This work sets out and exemplifies a new approach to social theory. While departing radically from classical Marxist thought, it directly engages with many of the most important issues in contemporary social and political theory, and offers a way forward for a new and revitalized Marxist tradition. Social Theory After Postmodernism returns to the same concern with law that marked the work of the classical sociological theorists, and which has been...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0745304729
• ISBN13: 9780745304724
• Release Date: July 1990
• Publisher: Pluto Press (UK)
• Length: 212 Pages
• Dimensions: 5.3" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

meta-theoretical pragmatism

Social Theory After Postmodernism breaks out of the Marxism versus Postmodernism syndrome by offering a way in which a transformed Marxism can take on board and benefit from postmodernism and deconstruction without lapsing into post-Marxism. Anthony Woodwiss, Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Essex, specifies the philosophical grounds upon which the rapprochement he seeks may be constructed, then moves on to deconstruct and rethink three concepts central to social theory - law, production and class. By using the techniques of the new criticism and drawing on results of his own empirical investigations, Woodwiss purges Marxism of its anachronistic features and specifies how its explanatory power may be once again set free. In the process postmodernism is saved from the self-contradiction that is otherwise its fate by becoming part of a non-representationalist sociology. The result is a concise and lucid contribution to social theory that does not overreach nor depreciate the overwhelming task theory is contending with. A very useful and engaging metatheoretical pragmatism that deserves to be read.