ABSTRACT
The analysis of social change is in the nature of an historical and sociological account, where "postmodern" refers to changes across a range of social institutions, from architecture to art to law, for instance. The Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex, a project accommodating over 10,000 low-income tenants in that city, was razed to the ground. It had been the target of condemnation from both the political left and right of the time as well as social workers, architects and town planners. According to Jencks, the history of architectural development hardly amounted to progress to ever higher forms of life culminating in a triumphant fusion of technological innovation and scientific method. From the late 1960s onward, some leading French philosophers, including Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, and Jean-Francois Lyotard sought to subject the central and defining characteristics of Enlightenment discourse to radical critique. Structuralism consequently focuses on the persistence and continuity of social practices and systems of thought.
