Visiting Assistant Professor of Government Peter F. Cannavò has published a review essay in the October 2007 issue of Political Theory, a leading political philosophy journal. Titled, "Confronting Postmodern Uncertainty: Political Insights from Cultural Practice," the essay reviews four recent books on cultural politics: Gay Hawkins, The Ethics of Waste: How We Relate Today to Rubbish; Marcie Franks, How to be an Intellectual in the Age of TV; Mary Caputi, A Kinder, Gentler America: Melancholia and the Mythical 1950s; and Helen Liggett, Urban Encounters.
All four books attempt to deal with postmodernity's "increasing destabilization, fragmentation, and incoherence of identities, social relations, roots, belief systems, and natural and built environments." Each "look[s] at postmodern uncertainty through the lens of cultural studies but seek[s] lessons for politics."
The authors either "accept postmodern uncertainty while seeking some political and ethical meaning within the current cultural milieu" or "build on cultural practices … to fashion a new ethical and political perspective and anchor a more livable, stable future." In critiquing these works, Cannavò argues that "contemporary cultural practices can only take us so far in tackling postmodern uncertainty" and that a more promising approach may have to come from "a coherent, systematic ideological alternative" that is external to contemporary practices.
All four books attempt to deal with postmodernity's "increasing destabilization, fragmentation, and incoherence of identities, social relations, roots, belief systems, and natural and built environments." Each "look[s] at postmodern uncertainty through the lens of cultural studies but seek[s] lessons for politics."
The authors either "accept postmodern uncertainty while seeking some political and ethical meaning within the current cultural milieu" or "build on cultural practices … to fashion a new ethical and political perspective and anchor a more livable, stable future." In critiquing these works, Cannavò argues that "contemporary cultural practices can only take us so far in tackling postmodern uncertainty" and that a more promising approach may have to come from "a coherent, systematic ideological alternative" that is external to contemporary practices.
