ABSTRACT
The postmodern movement and law 142 A new age in human history? 143 Questioning the idea of truth 146
Derrida, law and sociology 148 Deconstructing legal texts 149 Deconstruction in sociology 150
Foucault and law 151 Foucault’s criticisms of the Enlightenment 152 Cutting the head off the king 153 Governmentality as a research agenda 153
The politics of identity and difference 155 Postmodern feminism 156 Queer theory 157 Multiculturalism and law 158
Assessing postmodernism 160 The problem of relativism 160 Postmodernism and empirical research 162
Questions 162
Further reading 162
Boxes 7.1 Lyotard on the postmodern condition 145 7.2 Derrida on justice 149 7.3 The Islamic headscarf debate in Europe 159
There are all kinds of divisions and debates between the sociological traditions reviewed up to this point in this text. Some traditions generally approve of the way society is organised, whereas others deeply distrust established institutions, including the legal system, for benefiting economically powerful groups. Some believe that sociologists should focus on how people like lawyers and their clients understand what is happening within particular social settings without claiming that the researcher has superior views of society as a whole. Others argue that the whole purpose should be to challenge common-sense knowledge, and advance a political viewpoint. Nevertheless, despite these differences, sociologists in all these traditions share some important assumptions.
