One subject which captured the imagination of sociologists, philosophers, political scientists and writers on culture in the 1980s was postmodernism. This text considers the meaning and importance of postmodernity.

Though the Revised Edition of A Theory of Justice, published in 1999, is the definitive statement of Rawlsıs view, so much of the extensive literature on ...

The present debate in legal theory is dominated by an unfruitful schism. On the one hand, analytical theories are concerned with the positivity of law, running the risk of missing the law's relation to society. On the other hand, sociological approaches analyze all sorts of social interactions of law, but have developed no conceptual tools to do justice to the autonomy of law. The theory of autopoiesis offers law a chance of getting round the falsely posed alternative between an autonomous (...) rule system or a socially conditioned decision-making process. It is a theory of law that sees the law's autonomy in the self-reproduction of a communication network and understands its relation to society as interference with other autonomous communication networks. Building on the ideas of Humberto Maturana, Heinz von Foerster and Niklas Luhmann, Gunther Teubner uses the concepts of self-organization and autopoiesis to develop a concept of law as a hypercyclically closed social system. This book will stand as a landmark in legal theory and become a standard point of departure in the sociology of law. (shrink)

Postmodernity has been dubbed the great transformation in society and culture, yet in this book Keith Tester casts a cautious eye on such grandiose claims. Drawing on a range of themes and stories from European sociology and literature, Tester shows how many of the great statements about postmodernityare misleading. Tester argues that "postmodernity" is not so much the harbinger of new world expression as it is a parasite of modernity, feeding off its predecessor's unresolved paradoxes and possibilities. This book provides (...) a wealth of sources which are usually denigrated or ignored in the debates on postmodernity. As such, it sheds light on old claims, yet never fails to acknowledge the profound insights of sociologists and other authors.The Life and Times of Postmodernityis an elaboration of the themes which Tester raised in his earlier books,The Two SovereignsandCivil Society, both published by Routledge. (shrink)