ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a systematic and sociological description of postmodernism. It outlines a very straightforward sociological explanation of this cultural paradigm. Postmodernism has become a household word. Hair stylists and employees in boutiques where young people buy clothes or records from Los Angeles to Berlin will have heard of postmodernism and may well have an opinion of it. Roundtables and conferences on postmodernism will still turn up higher numbers, especially among the young, than on just about any other subject. A given cultural economy will include specific relations of production of cultural objects, specific conditions of reception, a particular institutional framework that mediates between production and reception, and a particular way in which cultural objects circulate. The chapter shows the cultural terrain on which people now all live, work, love, and struggle is pervaded by postmodernism. The main branches in the cultural sector are: education, audio-visual, publishing, tourism, and advertising.
