Editing Postmodernism (section)

==In other fields==
Postmodernism is more fully understood by observing its effects in such diverse fields as law, education, urban planning, religious studies, politics and many others.{{Sfn|Linn|1996|p=xiv}} Its influence varies widely across disciplines, reflecting the extent to which postmodern theories and ideas have been integrated into actual practices.

=== Anthropology ===
{{Main article|Postmodernist anthropology}}
Postmodern theory in [[anthropology]] originated in the 1960s, alongside the literary postmodern movement.{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}} [[Reflexivity (social theory)|Reflexivity]] is central to postmodern anthropology, a continuous practice of critical self-awareness that attempts to address the subjectivity inherent in interpretation.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Barnard |first=Alan |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/history-and-theory-in-anthropology/F3F074621C25D62FDC97876A0C03D615 |title=History and Theory in Anthropology |date=2021 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-83795-8 |edition=2 |location=Cambridge |pages=174–189 |chapter=Postmodernism and Its Aftermath |doi=10.1017/9781108936620}}</ref> Other key practices are an emphasis on including the perspectives of the people being studied;<ref name=":5">Barrett, S. (1996). Anthropology: a Students Guide to Theory and Method. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. (pp. 150-163)</ref> [[cultural relativism]], which considers values and beliefs within their cultural context;<ref name="Garder1996">{{cite book |last=Katy Garder and David Lewis |title=Anthropology, Development and the Post-Modernist Challenge |publisher=Pluto Press |year=1996 |isbn=0745307469 |location=London, UK |pages=22–23}}</ref> skepticism towards the notion that science can produce objective and universally valid knowledge;<ref name="Spiro1996">{{cite journal |last=Spiro |first=Melford E. |date=October 1996 |title=Postmodernist Anthropology, Subjectivity, and Science: A Modernist Critique |url=http://www.unl.edu/rhames/courses/current/readings/spiro-anti-pomo.pdf |journal=Comparative Studies in Society and History |volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=759–780 |doi=10.1017/s0010417500020521 |s2cid=18702184 |accessdate=29 March 2013}}</ref> and rejection of grand narratives or theories that attempt to explain other cultures.<ref name=":5" />

Anthropologists working in a postmodern vein seek to dissect, interpret, and write cultural critiques, analyzing of cultural texts and practices, rather than relying on empirical observation.{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}} The issue of subjectivity is a concern: as [[Ethnography|ethnographies]] are influenced by the perspective of the author, the question arises in the study of individual cultures as to whether the author's opinions should be considered scientific.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hegelund |first=Allan |date=May 2005 |title=Objectivity and Subjectivity in the Ethnographic Method |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1049732304273933 |journal=Qualitative Health Research |language=en |volume=15 |issue=5 |pages=647–668 |doi=10.1177/1049732304273933 |pmid=15802541 |issn=1049-7323 }}</ref> [[Clifford Geertz]], considered a founding member of postmodernist anthropology,<ref>Erickson, P. (2017). A History of Anthropological Theory. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. (pp.130)</ref> holds that, "anthropological writings are themselves interpretations, and second and third order ones to boot. (By definition, only a 'native' makes first order ones: it's ''his'' culture.)"<ref>Geertz, C. (1973). The Interpretations of Cultures. New York: Basic Books, Inc. (pp.15)</ref> In the 21st century, some anthropologists use a form of [[standpoint theory]], which prioritizes the perspectives of the subject over the perspective of the observer in cultural interpretation.{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}}

=== Feminism ===
{{Main article|Postmodern feminism}}
Postmodern feminism mixes [[Postmodern philosophy|postmodern theory]] and [[French feminism]]<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last1=Sands |first1=Roberta |last2=Nuccio |first2=Kathleen |date=Nov 1992 |title=Postmodern Feminist Theory and Social Work: A Deconstruction |journal=Social Work |volume=37 |pages=489 |doi=10.1093/sw/40.6.831 |issn=1545-6846}}</ref> that rejects a universal female subject.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Ebert |first=Teresa L. |date=Dec 1991 |title=The "Difference" of Postmodern Feminism |journal=College English |volume=53 |issue=8 |pages=886–904 |doi=10.2307/377692 |issn=0010-0994 |jstor=377692}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Tong |first=Rosemarie |url=https://archive.org/details/feministthoughtc00tong |title=Feminist thought : a comprehensive introduction |publisher=Westview Press |year=1989 |isbn=9780429493836 |location=Boulder, Colorado |pages=[https://archive.org/details/feministthoughtc00tong/page/217 217]–224 |oclc=1041706991 |url-access=registration}}</ref> The goal is to destabilize the [[Patriarchy|patriarchal]] norms entrenched in society that have led to gender inequality.<ref name=":1" /> [[Essentialism]], philosophy, and universal truths are opposed, in favor of embracing the differences that exist amongst women to demonstrate that not all women are the same.<ref name=":4" /> Applying universal truths to all women in a society minimizes individual experience; ideas displayed as the norm in society stem from masculine notions of how women should be portrayed.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wallin |first=Dawn C |title=Postmodern Feminism and Educational Policy Development |publisher=McGill Journal of Education |year=2001 |pages=27–43 |oclc=967130390}}</ref>

Postmodern feminism seeks to analyze notions that have led to gender inequality, and attempts to promote equality through critiquing [[logocentrism]], supporting multiple discourses, deconstructing texts, and seeking to promote [[subjectivity]].<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4" /> This approach is not readily accepted by all feminists—some believe postmodern thought undermines the attacks that [[feminist theory]] attempts to create, while other feminists are in favor of the union.<ref name=":3" />

=== Law ===
{{Main article|Postmodern law}}
In response to the perceived shortcomings of [[legal formalism]] and [[legal positivism|positivism]], postmodern legal scholars developed several new approaches to address both formal and ethical issues in [[jurisprudence]]. In particular, they emphasize the inequalities introduced to the legal system by such matters as race, gender, and economic status.{{sfn|Douzinas|2004|p=197}}

=== Psychology ===
{{Main article|Postmodern psychology}}
In 1992, the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' reported on "a group of increasingly influential psychologists – postmodern psychologists seems to be the name that is sticking", who had come to the conclusion that "the American conception of an isolated, unified self" does not exist. People are composed of many different selves, constructed for different situations.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Stephens |first=Mitchell |date=Aug 23, 1992 |title=A New Breed of Psychologists Says There's No One Answer to the Question 'Who Am I?' |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-08-23-tm-7343-story.html |access-date=Dec 3, 2024 |website=[[Los Angeles Times]]}}</ref> In this way, postmodernism challenges the [[modernist]] view of psychology as the science of the individual,<ref>S. Kvale ed., ''Psychology and Postmodernism'' (1992) p. 40</ref> in favor of seeing humans as a cultural/communal product, dominated by language rather than by an inner self.<ref>L. Holtzman/J. R. Moss eds., ''Postmodern Psychologies, Societal Practice and Political Life'' (2000) p. 179</ref> 

In 2001, [[Kenneth J. Gergen|Kenneth Gergen]], a pioneer in postmodern psychological theory,&nbsp;identified "emphasis on the individual mind, an objectively knowable world, and language as carrier of truth" as the cornerstones of traditional modernist psychology. He noted criticism of these assumptions coming from "every quarter of the humanities and the sciences", and the emergence of a psychology in which "colonialist universalism is replaced by a global conversation among equals". He also considered the "strong critical reservation", including the realist argument that a socially constructed world cannot negate a clearly observable objective reality; the claim of incoherence, wherein postmodernism denies truth and objectivity while simultaneously making truth claims; and its moral relativism, which fails to take a principled ethical stand. Ultimately, he concluded that psychology's future is "hanging in the balance".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gergen |first=Kenneth J. |date=2001 |title=Psychological science in a postmodern context. |url=http://doi.apa.org/getdoi.cfm?doi=10.1037/0003-066X.56.10.803 |journal=American Psychologist |language=en |volume=56 |issue=10 |pages=803–813 |doi=10.1037/0003-066X.56.10.803 |pmid=11675987 |issn=0003-066X}}</ref>

In 2021, psychologist [[Jan Smedslund]] discussed how psychology tried for decades to emulate the [[Natural science|natural sciences]] and address unpredictable individual behavior. He described how the dominant methodology came to rely exclusively on statistical analysis of group-level data and average findings, whereby it "lost contact with the psychological processes going on in individual persons." He advocated for abandoning the natural science approach that had "led into a clearly discernible blind alley."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Smedslund |first=Jan |date=2021-04-01 |title=From statistics to trust: Psychology in transition |journal=New Ideas in Psychology |volume=61 |pages=100848 |doi=10.1016/j.newideapsych.2020.100848 |issn=0732-118X|doi-access=free }}</ref>

In 2024, American psychology professor Edwin Gantt wrote that psychology remains in a state of continual struggle "to decide whether its true intellectual home is to be found among the humanities, especially philosophy and literature, or among the STEM disciplines." He finds psychology "a key site where the intellectual tug-of-war between modernism and postmodernism plays itself out in academia."{{Sfn|Gantt|2024}}

=== Urban planning ===
Modernism sought to design and plan cities that followed the logic of the new model of industrial [[mass production]]; reverting to large-scale solutions, aesthetic standardization, and [[Prefabrication|prefabricated]] design solutions.{{sfn|Goodchild|1990|pp=119–137}} This approach was found to have eroded urban living by its failure to recognize differences and aim towards homogeneous landscapes.{{sfn|Simonsen|1990|p=57}} [[Jane Jacobs]]'s 1961 book ''[[The Death and Life of Great American Cities]],''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jacobs |first=Jane |url=https://archive.org/details/deathlifeofgreat0000jaco |title=The death and life of great American cities |publisher=Modern Library |year=1993 |isbn=0-679-64433-4 |location=New York |url-access=registration}}</ref> was a sustained critique of urban planning as it had developed within modernism,{{sfn|Irving|1993|p=479}} and played a major role in turning public opinion against modernist planners, notably [[Robert Moses]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=February 3, 2010 |title=The Next American System&nbsp;— The Master Builder (1977) |url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/blueprintamerica/video/the-dig-web-video-the-master-builder-1977/925/ |publisher=[[PBS]]}}</ref>

Postmodern urban planning involves theories that embrace and aim to create diversity, elevating uncertainty, flexibility, and change, and rejecting utopianism while embracing a utopian way of thinking and acting.{{sfn|Hatuka|d'Hooghe|2007|pp=20–27}} The postmodernity of "resistance" seeks to deconstruct modernism, a critique of the origins without necessarily returning to them.{{sfn|Irving|1993|p=460}} <ref>{{harvnb|Goodchild|1990|pp=119–137}}; {{harvnb|Hatuka|d'Hooghe|2007|pp=20–27}}; {{harvnb|Irving|1993|pp=474–87}}; {{harvnb|Simonsen|1990|pp=51–62}}</ref>

=== Theology ===
{{Main article|Postmodern theology}}
The postmodern theological movement interprets [[Christian theology]] in light of postmodern theory and various forms of post-[[Martin Heidegger|Heideggerian]] thought, using approaches such as [[poststructuralism]], [[Phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenology]], and [[deconstruction]] to question fixed interpretations, explore the role of [[lived experience]], and uncover hidden textual assumptions and contradictions.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Raschke |first=Carl |title=Postmodern Theology: A Biopic |year=2017}}</ref> The movement emerged in the 1980s and 1990s when a handful of philosophers who took philosopher [[Martin Heidegger]] as a common point of departure began publishing books engaging with Christian theology.{{sfn|Vanhoozer|2003|pp=22–25}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Crockett |first=Clayton |url=https://archive.org/details/radicalpolitical00croc |title=Radical Political Theology |year=2011 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/radicalpolitical00croc/page/n175 163] |url-access=limited}}</ref>

Theologian [[Kevin J. Vanhoozer]] combines and expands on other scholarly classifications to present seven types of postmodern theology: postliberal, postmetaphysical, deconstructive, reconstructive, [[Feminist theology|feminist]], Anglo-American postmodernity, and [[radical orthodoxy]]. He notes that the typology should be considered "provisional and fallible [yet] not entirely arbitrary", having met two main criteria: each is an approach taken by more than one theologian, and each "believes itself to be responding to, rejecting, or passing through modernity, not inhabiting it."{{sfn|Vanhoozer|2003|p=20}}