Baudrillard: New Means of Consumption and Extreme Postmodern Social Theory
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Jean Baudrillard
- Born in France in 1929
- He was a Professor of Sociology in Paris
- Outspoken Marxist views
- Radical postmodern theorist
- Rejected the idea of disciplinary boundaries
- Started his studies in 1960s
Books
- His first book, The System of Objects, 1968
- The Consumer Society, 1970
- For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign, 1972
- Symbolic Exchange and Death, 1976
- The Spirit of Terrorism: And Requiem for the Twin Towers, 2002
Extreme Postmodern Social Theory
- Marxian critique of consumer society
- New means of consumption
- His approach was productivity based
- Today՚s times, consumption > production in terms of importance
- Later, he rejected Marx՚s ideas
- In 1975, he wrote The Mirror of Production
- Reflected a mirror image of political economy
- He argued that Marx was infected by the virus of bourgeois thought
- He sought for a radical orientation in lines with the new society and argued that ‘work’ and ‘value’ are not the only parameters in society today
- Symbolic exchange against economic exchange
- Symbolic exchange – a cycle of gifts and counter gifts
- It opposes capitalism
- Aim to create a society characterized by this cycle of exchange
Views on Contemporary Society
- Society is not dominated by mode of production anymore
- Rather by media, IT, knowledge, information, Industries, etc.
- Code of production dominates now
- Shift from exploitation to domination of signs and systems
- Signs are self-referential
- Difficult to tell what is real
- “Distinction between signs is reality has imploded.”
- A shift from differentiation to dedifferentiation
MCQ
Q. 1. Who is of the view that the post-modern age is a world where people respond to media images rather than to real persons or places?
i. Baudrillard
ii. Jameson
iii. Castells
iv. Kellner
Answer: i. Baudrillard
Q. 2. According to Baudrillard, we live in a world
i. With less information and more meaning
ii. With more information but with less meaning
iii. Where there is more use value of signs
iv. None of these
Answer: ii. With more information but with less meaning
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✍ Manishika