The Public Administration Theory Primer

Looking for Postmodern Public Administration Th eory 149

Postmodernity, for example, denies the distinction between appearance and re-
ality. Th e postmodern state is therefore one of hyperreality, a merging of the real
with appearances, stimulation, illusion. Th e dividing lines between objects and
pictures, descriptions, impressions, or simulations of that object have imploded
to such an extent that we no longer have a direct understanding of the object. In a
state of hyperreality, everything is virtual and simulation becomes more real than
real (Farmer 1995, 150). In its most extreme view, postmodernism argues that
humans have dropped out of history and have left reality behind.

Modernist Postmodernist

Form (conjunctive, closed) Antiform (disjunctive, open)

Purpose Play

Design Chance

Hierarchy Anarchy

Mastery/Logos Exhaustion/Silence

Art Object/Finished Work Process/Performance/Happening

Distance Participation

Creation/Totalization Decreation/Deconstruction

Synthesis Antisynthesis

Presence Absence

Centering Dispersal

Signified Signifier

Narrative Antinarrative

God the Father The Holy Ghost

Symptom Desire

Origin/Cause Difference- Difference/Trace

Metaphysics Irony

Determinancy Indeterminancy

TABLE 6.2 Critiques of Postmodernism as a Th eory

Source: Adapted from Hassan 2001, pp. 121–122