Behind the Postmodernists, or the Cultural Geographies of Late Capitalism

Abstract

Perhaps postmodernisms have died, but their implications are still valid. This article attempts to outline a map of postmodernisms in geography and delve into the archaeology of their future implications, from a Mediterranean viewpoint on English-speaking geography.
It is argued that postmodernism is the cultural and intellectual expression of late capitalism, offering three challenges to social thinking: representation, context and pluralism. Various interpretations in geography are discussed together with the topic of the confusion with new regional socio-spatial interpretations and the points of contact with geography and feminist geographies. The conclusion is reached that the academic struggles for possession of the «brandname» have led to the domestication, discredit and rejection of the concept, thus impeding the emergence of a genuinely postmodern and relativist geography.

However, although postmodernism has died, its transfiguration is impregnating practice, as in the case of new cultural goegraphy. Finally, it is suggested that relativism requires intellectual caution, socio-political attention and social criticism.