Klaipėdos universitetas

The article addresses the problem of uncertainty in social work. The problem is analyzed in the context of domination of postmodern worldviews. Three types of uncertainty are distinguished: ontological, epistemological and procedural. Resting on various literature critical thinking, human rights discourse and client strengths perspective are presented as possible alternatives for decision making in a complex world.

In the article the paradigm of traditional public administration is analysed by trying to accomplish the critique of the model in the cultural dimension direction and by identifying the crucial elements of post-modernism which, according to the authors, had made an impact for the formation of such a model. There are also revealed the parameters of post-modernism in metanarrative theories of rationality, as the grounded technological and instrumental relation towards traditional paradigm principles by stressing the hierarchical governance, bureaucratic relations, control mechanisms, rational organisational structure and functional division with professionalism. By identifying the main traits of traditional paradigm, the aspects and tendencies of post-modernist organisations are revealed and the controversial answer to the question about the relevance of traditional public administration model is presented.

This paper analyses some of the most important features of postmodernism, determining the way of a modern person’s life, relationship with oneself and, ultimately, with transcendence. One of the main aspects of contemporary society is excessive consumption, in fact relativism, secularism and subjectivism. These phenomena, in their psychological and theological sense, promote the disintegration of the integrity of the human person. This phenomenon becomes very visible in cases of illness, suffering and death. The modern man has lost the harmony between the body, the spirit and the soul, and at the same time the right relationship with God. It does arise in human life between the various dimensions of life: personal self-awareness, family, work, business, work, and other fields. Without faith, postmodernism does not accept man’s inevitability of death, strives to ignore it, or simply flee from it. But this does not give peace to human. The search for the meaning of life and death is in the nature of man, so only believing in a supernatural world, the fostering of spiritual values gives real hope.

In contemporary society the new organizational forms take pace, which enable individuums to form some kind of common identities by reaching consumers communities. Consumerism is the main feature of such communities, which may be called as certain “tribes” with their values and they develop as capitalist system deepens and widens. Postmodernism creates such cultural environment, which forms “tribal marketing” phenomena as mobilizing different groups for the more developed, clearly defined and specific consumption. The authors in the article seek to reveal the impact of postmodernist consumerism to the formation of “tribal marketing” and the development of this phenomena vice/versa.