Investigates postmodern architecture's manifestations in the unlikely settings of Chile during the neoliberal dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet and Poland during the late socialist Polish People's Republic. Argues for a new account that incorporates the political roles postmodernism plays when seen in a global perspective. Focuses particularly on what "dissent" can mean in architecture - an enterprise that is always an expression of authority structures as its manifestation depends upon state approval or support.