Many books for students of early childhood studies, but also aimed at practitioners, now feature terms such as postmodern, poststructural, deconstruction and discourse. If these ideas are to be useful to readers, the words and concepts need to be explained. For a decent detective job on origins and meanings, it has been necessary to bring together the knowledge of both authors of this article: early years/psychology (Jennie Lindon) and sociology (Drew Lindon).
Postmodernism
This concept comes from a radical re-think in sociology. The discipline started with the analysis of modern society. 'Modern' is defined as the changes brought about by the industrial revolution in the UK in the late 18th century. Sociology first used ideas that made sense within an industrial society, including the stance that social class was very significant and that adults largely developed their sense of personal identity from paid work.
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