The nexus between modernity and postmodernity is debated throughout the field of social science. Subsequently, the fault-lines of where the two conditions intersect are unclear. By using communication and media studies as a discipline, and autism as a subject area to contextualise these debates; this essay will explore the limitations of viewing modernity and postmodernity as paradigmatic and will propose that the conditions intertwine. This essay will evaluate two prominent fault-lines by exploring the competing discourses surrounding knowledge production and circulation to underpin how both conditions impact our knowledge making. While also addressing the construction of identity to assess whether our understanding of identity has progressed.

Understanding Modernity and Postmodernity

The similarity of the terms ‘modernity’ and ‘postmodernity’ reflect the theoretical and historical uncertainty in defining these terms. Subsequently, two polarised understandings of the link between modernity and postmodernity proliferate. Firstly, positioning postmodernity as a new condition comes from the contention that the modernist understandings of society are no longer applicable to the contemporary social situation. Therefore, principles of postmodernity critique modernity. Alternatively, postmodernity can be viewed as an extension of modernist ideologies through repositioning modernist concepts to apply to contemporary social issues (Habermas, 1962).

The main principles of modernity are characterised as scientific rationality and conformity. While postmodernity focusses on ontology and scepticism of meta-narratives. These will be discussed further in the following sections.

Knowledge: Scientific or Relative

A significant fault-line between modernity and postmodernity is knowledge creation and circulation. Paramount to Social Science Research (SSR) is the theory of knowledge, which is translated into modernity through rationalisation and into postmodernity through empiricism. The decline of objectivism and the rise of relativism is integral to SSR as these differing assumptions guide our understanding of society. By contrasting rationality with relativism, this section wi