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Post-Modernist Perspective on Social Change

Post modernists see social change beyond integration –conflict debate. They reject grand theories of social change as proposed by Marx, Durkheim and Parsons. Feminist sociology is one of the strands of post modernist sociology. It emphasizes centrality of gender in social change. According to the feminist sociologists, social reality is viewed differently by the two sexes. Rising rights awareness, feminization of workforce and women movement is new dimensions of social change. Jacques Derrida and Michael Foucault laid foundation of post structuralism. Foucault analyzed the emergence of modern institutions like prisons, hospitals and schools as a sign of increasing surveillance in society. Postmodern society is not destined to socialism as Marx had predicted but is likely to be more multi cultural and diverse so that traditional branches of sociology will prove insufficient to account for social change.  According to Jean Baudrillard mass media has reversed the Marxist idea that society is dominated by economic structure rather it will now be increasingly controlled by the signs and images controlled by the mass media.