Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC)
Library,Documentation and Information Science Division

“A research journal serves that narrow

borderland which separates the known from the unknown”

-P.C.Mahalanobis


Image from Google Jackets

Crossing the postmodern divide / [electronic resource] Albert Borgmann.

By: Material type: TextTextPublication details: Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1992.Description: 173 p. ; 24 cmISBN:
  • 0226066266 (cloth : alk. paper) :
  • 9780226066264 (cloth : alk. paper)
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 973.92 20
LOC classification:
  • E169.12 .B666 1992
Other classification:
  • 08.44
Online resources: Summary: Crossing the Postmodern Divide is a guide for all those perplexed by what it means to live at the edge of an era. Albert Borgmann writes for everyone seeking to understand the sprawling critique of modernity that informs virtually every aspect of life at the end of the twentieth century, from philosophy, social theory, and the arts to everyday worlds of work and family and community. In this eloquent guide to the meanings of the postmodern era, Borgmann charts the options before us as we seek alternatives to the joyless and artificial culture of consumption. With exceptional clarity, Borgmann connects the fundamental ideas driving his understanding of society's ills to every sphere of contemporary social life. We have lost faith in the modern project. Our society is disenchanted with a world in which science and technology have become tools for destruction; where rampant individualism is a mask for privilege and greed; and where the institutions of public life are emptied of meaning and purpose. In offering alternatives to modernity's exhausted traditions, alternatives already emerging in everyday life, Borgmann moves this critique to its next stage. Whether in the increasingly flexible organization of work, the enabling technologies of the personal computer, or the return to small-scale communities more in harmony with the demands of nature, he finds us beginning to reorder our social worlds. Crossing the Postmodern Divide also offers a powerfully articulated vision of what a postmodern culture has in store. This new era, at its best, would enable participation, acknowledge limits, and restore to human life the importance of the local, the sacred, and the communal. The critique of modernism Borgmann portrays goes beyond the empty language of postmodern discourse. It speaks to real dissatisfactions with the quality of our world and strives to provide us with a helpful view of the postmodern divide and what lies beyond it.
Tags from this library: No tags from this library for this title. Log in to add tags.
No physical items for this record

Includes bibliographical references (p. 149-166) and index.

Crossing the Postmodern Divide is a guide for all those perplexed by what it means to live at the edge of an era. Albert Borgmann writes for everyone seeking to understand the sprawling critique of modernity that informs virtually every aspect of life at the end of the twentieth century, from philosophy, social theory, and the arts to everyday worlds of work and family and community. In this eloquent guide to the meanings of the postmodern era, Borgmann charts the options before us as we seek alternatives to the joyless and artificial culture of consumption. With exceptional clarity, Borgmann connects the fundamental ideas driving his understanding of society's ills to every sphere of contemporary social life. We have lost faith in the modern project. Our society is disenchanted with a world in which science and technology have become tools for destruction; where rampant individualism is a mask for privilege and greed; and where the institutions of public life are emptied of meaning and purpose. In offering alternatives to modernity's exhausted traditions, alternatives already emerging in everyday life, Borgmann moves this critique to its next stage. Whether in the increasingly flexible organization of work, the enabling technologies of the personal computer, or the return to small-scale communities more in harmony with the demands of nature, he finds us beginning to reorder our social worlds. Crossing the Postmodern Divide also offers a powerfully articulated vision of what a postmodern culture has in store. This new era, at its best, would enable participation, acknowledge limits, and restore to human life the importance of the local, the sacred, and the communal. The critique of modernism Borgmann portrays goes beyond the empty language of postmodern discourse. It speaks to real dissatisfactions with the quality of our world and strives to provide us with a helpful view of the postmodern divide and what lies beyond it.

There are no comments on this title.

to post a comment.
Library, Documentation and Information Science Division, Indian Statistical Institute, 203 B T Road, Kolkata 700108, INDIA
Phone no. 91-33-2575 2100, Fax no. 91-33-2578 1412, ksatpathy@isical.ac.in