Postmodernism’s rejection of unified representation leads logically to pragmatic localism.

Evidence

But if, as the postmodernists insist, we cannot aspire to any unified representation of the world, or picture it as a totality full of connections and differentiations rather than as perpetually shifting fragments, then how can we possibly aspire to act coherently with respect to the world? The simple postmodernist answer is that since coherent representation and action are either repressive or illusionary (and therefore doomed to be self-dissolving and self­ defeating), we should not even try to engage in some global project. Pragmatism (of the Dewey sort) then becomes the only possible philosophy of action. — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 353

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s rivalry project: this is the nerve of Harvey’s critique that a postmodern epistemology undercuts the possibility of the coherent critique of flexible accumulation. — connects to: Postmodern abstractions that claim universality are actually local and self-inverting. — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 850; Postmodernism theory cannot produce a stable inside-outside position for its own observers; Periodizing postmodernism as a unified system may betray its own logic of difference — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 739 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Postmodern abstractions that claim universality are actually local and self-inverting. #corroborates (0.88) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 850
• Postmodern allegory is horizontal and relational rather than vertical and fixed #corroborates (0.82) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 392
• Postmodernity is defined by the delegitimation of metanarratives #corroborates (0.80) — Perry Anderson, The Origins of Postmodernity, 65
• Periodizing postmodernism as a unified system may betray its own logic of difference #corroborates (0.78) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 739
• Postmodernism theory cannot produce a stable inside-outside position for its own observers #complicates (0.75)