Hypermodern Times

Lipovetsky, Gilles

ISBN 10: 0745634214 / ISBN 13: 9780745634210

Published by Polity, 2005

Most items will be dispatched the same or the next working day. A copy that has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # rev5815594202

Synopsis:

The term ‘postmodernity’ has been used to describe that historical transformation of the late 20th century when the institutional breaks holding back individual emancipation disintegrated, thereby giving rise to the full expression of individual desires and the quest for self-fulfilment. But there are now signs – argues Gilles Lipovetsky, one of the most original social thinkers in France today – that we’ve entered a new phase of ‘hypermodernity’, characterized by hyper-consumption and the hypermodern individual.

Hyperconsumption is a consumption which absorbs and integrates more and more spheres of social life and which encourages individuals to consume for their own personal pleasure rather than to enhance their social status. Hypermodernity is a society characterized by movement, fluidity and flexibility, distanced more than ever from the great structuring principles of modernity. And the hypermodern individual, while oriented towards pleasure and hedonism, is also filled with the kind of tension and anxiety that comes from living in a world which has been stripped of tradition and which faces an uncertain future. Individuals are gnawed by anxiety; fear has superimposed itself on their pleasures, and anguish on their liberation. Everything worries and alarms them, and there are no longer any beliefs systems to which they can turn for assurance. These are hypermodern times.

About the Author: Gilles Lipovetsky, Professor of Philosopy and member of the “Conseil National des Programmes (Education Nationale) in France

Sébastien Charles, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sherbrooke, Canada

Bibliographic Details

Title: Hypermodern Times
Publisher: Polity
Publication Date: 2005
Binding: Soft cover
Condition: Very Good