Liquid Modernity

Zygmunt Bauman (1925-2017) was Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the Universities of Leeds and Warsaw.

"Bauman on a bad day is still far more stimulating than most contemporary social thinkers. He is the Georg Simmel of our age, and his books and essays will be read when contemporary exponents of social arithmetic are long forgotten." Times Higher Education Supplement "Liquid Modernity is Zygmunt Bauman's term for the present condition of the world as contrasted with the 'solid' modernity that preceded it ... He is a vivid and original writer with an eye for the revealing personal experience.' Dennis Wrong, Times Literary Supplement "Zygmunt Bauman can be counted among those giants of sociology - C. Wright Mills, Émile Durkheim, Max Weber - who are bound together not by a shared ideological or disciplinary alignment, but by a profound and moral passion. I do not employ the term "moral" in the commonly used sense of "judgmental", but to describe their ability to define the spirit of the age, to ask cutting questions about society's direction, warn of dangers and perceive opportunities." Contemporary Politics "These books mark an important advance in Bauman's project. He seems to be trying to bring the intellectuals back into the game, twitting them for their passivity. Bauman wants social critics to take a more active role, taking a lead by showing how the relationships between individuals and society and between the private and public spheres may be rearticulated and the spirit of the agora restored to social and political life." British Journal of Sociology "His work is essential reading for those political theorist who feel that part of their task is to elaborate relevant and compelling normative critique." Contemporary Political Theory "Bauman lucidly depicts what others call the 'postmodern situation' a term that he painstakingly avoids, and his analysis is important for anyone interested in cultural criticism" Caterina Norlin-Brage, Religious Studies Review "One of post-modernity's great commentators." Pete Ward, Church Times

• Foreword: On Being Light and Liquid. 1. Emancipation.2. Individuality.3. Time/Space.4. Work.5. Community.Afterthoughts: On Writing; on Writing Sociology.Notes.Index.