Product Description: First published in English in 1970, the first chapter of the book is concerned with conditioned reactions. Jean François le Ny discusses ways in which conditioned reactions are acquired and the laws governing their function. The second contributor, Gérard de Montpellier, looks at different types of learning...read more

Postmodernity as idea, critique, cultural experience, and social condition has engendered a sometimes angry, sometimes anxious debate across many disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. In Postmodernity, David Lyon provides a stimulating introduction to this contested concept and the discussions it provokes.Lyon describes this multilayered notion that encompasses a variety of major social and cultural changes taking place at the end of the twentieth century. Among the key processes he examines: -- rapid technological change-- shifting political concerns-- the rise of social movements-- globalizationLyon discusses modernity as a social-cultural entity and questions whether it and the monolithic edifice of Enlightenment rationality and progress are disintegrating. He concludes that a new sort of society is emerging, one structured around consumers and consumption rather than workers and production. This second edition delves more deeply into issues such as globalization and the new postmodern quest for ethics.