Postmodern Turn in Geography

The emergence of the postmodern debate during the late 1980s and 1990s has transformed the cultural and intellectual scene across a whole range of disciplines, from literary criticism, the visual arts, and architecture to large portions of philosophy and the social sciences, all of which witnessed an unprecedented series of theoretical innovations and critical “streams” that are commonly brought together under the “postmodern” umbrella. Just some of the characteristics of this proliferation of critical approaches were: radical relativism; the fragmentation and instability of subjects and objects; a loss of confidence in comprehensive theoretical frameworks; and a rejection of the grand narratives that laid the foundations of mainstream, “rational” understandings of the modern tradition. But these same characteristics also rendered particularly difficult (and unstable) attempt to trace the perimeters of what, at least in some Western academic circles, was considered as one of the most relevant intellectual developments of the late 20th Century.