Meaning After Postmodernism: Complexity, Coherence, and Civilisational Adaptation

Contemporary societies exhibit increasing fragmentation despite unprecedented capacities for communication and technological coordination. This paper argues that such fragmentation emerges from a widening tension between escalating communicative complexity and the declining coherence of inherited symbolic systems. Drawing upon systems theory, media theory, sociology, and civilisational analysis, it develops an evolutionary-cultural framework in which meaning systems function as adaptive coordination architectures that stabilise large-scale cooperation under conditions of rising complexity. Postmodernism correctly identified the instability of grand narratives within advanced communicative societies, yet offered comparatively little account of how coherence can persist once shared symbolic frameworks weaken. Under conditions of digital hyperconnectivity and artificial intelligence, this tension intensifies further as communicative environments outpace many of the adaptive assumptions under which existing cultural systems evolved. The paper proposes an evolutionary culturalism in which cultures continuously reorganise in response to changing communicative and institutional pressures while retaining the integrative functions necessary for civilisational continuity. Under consideration at Theory, Culture & Society (SAGE).