Zygmunt Bauman

Dennis Smith is Professor of Sociology at Loughborough University, and the author of many books, including The Rise of Historical Sociology (Polity Press, 1991)

"A very accessible introduction."—Choice"This book is both an introduction to the main themes of Bauman's work and an intellectual biography. Smith is clear, unpretentious, and unfailingly accurate, with a remarkably sound eye for what is significant and what is not, and for what will maintain the book's narrative drive. As a guide for the perplexed or just plain curious it could hardly be bettered."—British Journal of Sociology"Dennis Smith's book is part of Polity's series of Key Contemporary Thinkers, and on this evidence it is shaping up to be a worthwhile set of texts. He has not written a 'Beginner's Guide to Bauman', but rather an in-depth piece of work which includes some lengthy correspondence with Bauman."—Contemporary Politics

• Preface xPart I Setting the Agenda1 Living Without a Guidebook 3Introduction 3Critical perspectives 3Sociology plus 5What is modernity? 6What is postmodernity? 9Why Bauman is worth reading 14The myth of the cage-dwellers 16The rest of this book 182 No Easy Choices 20Culture, choice and sociology 20Bauman’s vision 23Bauman’s career and intellectual influences: a brief overview 273 Who is Zygmunt Bauman? 33Faith, hope and charity 33The roots of wisdom 34Bauman’s agenda 35A brief biography 38Transitions 41Puzzles 43Anti-Semitism and Bauman 43Neither insider nor outsider 44Marx and the art of motorcycle maintenance 454 The Power of the Past 48Discovering postmodernity 48From priest to prophet 50Out of Poland 52A sociology for strangers 56Part II The Road to Postmodernity5 The Road to the West 61Keeping on the road 61An unexpected discovery 62Intellectuals and innovation 64Bauman, Galbraith and Mill 66Modern times, modern Marxism 67Between Class and Elite 69Polish peasants and politics 71Conclusion 756 The Road to Utopia 77Mechanisms of social change 77Culture as Praxis 77Towards a Critical Sociology 80Socialism: the active utopia 85Hermeneutics and Social Science 89Conclusion 947 The Road to the Berlin Wall 98Switching routes 98Solidarity 99Memories of Class 101Freedom 105After communism 109Conclusion 1108 The Trilogy 113Three narratives 113Legislators and Interpreters 114Cruelty, dehumanization and estrangement 120Modernity and the Holocaust 122Modernity and Ambivalence 130Conclusion 1349 Bauman’s Vision of Modernity and Postmodernity 136Elaborating the vision 136Tending the garden 136Discipline and sacrifice 138The costs of modernity 142Contradictions of modernity 143The postmodern perspective 147The postmodern habitat 150The broader context 152Three aspects of postmodernity 153Postmodernization 155Globalization 156Seduction and repression 156Cognitive, aesthetic and moral space 158The stranger 161I and the Other 163The role of the sociologist 165Part III Dialogue10 Between Critical Theory and Poststructuralism 169The ambivalence of criticism 169The journey from modernity to postmodernity 170Adorno and Habermas 171Foucault and Lyotard 178Enlightenment values 18411 A Correspondence between Zygmunt Bauman and Dennis Smith 188First letter 188Second letter 191Third letter 198Fourth letter 203Fifth letter 213Notes 221Bibliography 231Index 239