Individual elements are ignorant of the behavior of the whole system in which they are embedded. Postmodern societies have millions of agents operating within them at any one time. In a postmodern society, the interactions between agents and and mechanisms of the societal system are extremely rich and diverse. Social relationships in postmodern society are non-linear and asymmetrical with respect to power. It is within these asymmetrical power relationships that people operate as teachers, students, consumers, and citizens.
Individuals interact on local levels.
All interpretations are local, contingent, and provisional. In this situation, paralogy and dissensus rather than homology prevail. 7. Open systems such as the social interact with other open systems such as the ecological. Social disequilibrium characterizes the postmodern condition. Although the concept of history is dismissed as a grand narrative in the postmodern, local narratives tell the histories of individuals and groups.