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Wealth For Everybody - Semantics And Structure Of The Capitalist Metanarrative, Sylvia Hendel

Dissertations and Theses

In 1979 Jean-Fran~ois Lyotard defined postmodemism as "incredulity toward metanarratives." One of six narratives Lyotard saw in decline was the capitalist one, which promised wealth for everybody. According to Lyotard this narrative was refuted by recurrent economic crises in the 20th century. This thesis examines Lyotard's statement about the decline of the capitalist metanarrative by taking the approach of the sociology of knowledge, a branch of sociology that attempts to relate ideas to the socio-historical settings in which they are produced and received. The idea of general abundance, or the semantics, is described in othodox economic theory. Four distinct, successive …