Liquid Modernity

In this new book, Bauman examines how we have moved away from a 'heavy' and 'solid', hardware-focused modernity to a 'light' and 'liquid', software-based modernity. This passage, he argues, has brought profound change to all aspects of the human condition. The new remoteness and un-reachability of global systemic structure coupled with the unstructured and under-defined, fluid state of the immediate setting of life-politics and human togetherness, call for the rethinking of the concepts and cognitive frames used to narrate human individual experience and their joint history. This book is dedicated to this task. Bauman selects five of the basic concepts which have served to make sense of shared human life - emancipation, individuality, time/space, work and community - and traces their successive incarnations and changes of meaning. Liquid Modernity concludes the analysis undertaken in Bauman's two previous books Globalization: The Human Consequences and In Search of Politics . Together these volumes form a brilliant analysis of the changing conditions of social and political life by one of the most original thinkers writing today. Times Literary Supplement - Dennis Wrong Bauman's descriptions are a good deal richer than any abbreviated summary of them suggests. He is a vivid and origianl writer with an eye for the revealing personal experience, such as his report of two companions in an airport bar each talking for over an hour on cellular phones without ever addressing one another. In this new book, Bauman examines how we have moved away from a 'heavy' and 'solid', hardware-focused modernity to a 'light' and 'liquid', software-based modernity. This passage, he argues, has brought profound change to all aspects of the human condition. The new remoteness and un-reachability of global systemic structure coupled with the unstructured and under-defined, fluid state of the immediate setting of life-politics and human togetherness, call for the rethinking of the concepts and cognitive frames used to narrate human individual experience and their joint history. This book is dedicated to this task. Bauman selects five of the basic concepts which have served to make sense of shared human life - emancipation, individuality, time/space, work and community - and traces their successive incarnations and changes of meanaing. Liquid Modernity concludes the analysis undertaken in Bauman's two previous books Globalization: The Human Consequences and In Search of Politics . Together these volumes form a brilliant analysis of the changing conditions of social and political life by one of the most original thinkers writing today. In this new book, Bauman examines how we have moved away from a a heavy and a solid, hardware--focused modernity to a light and a liquid, software--based modernity. This passage, he argues, has brought profound change to all aspects of the human condition. The new remoteness and un--reachability of global systemic structure coupled with the unstructured and under--defined, fluid state of the immediate setting of life--politics and human togetherness, call for the rethinking of the concepts and cognitive frames used to narrate human individual experience and their joint history. This book is dedicated to this task. Bauman selects five of the basic concepts which have served to make sense of shared human life -- emancipation, individuality, time/space, work and community -- and traces their successive incarnations and changes of meaning. Liquid Modernity concludes the analysis undertaken in Baumana s two previous books Globalization: The Human Consequences and In Search of Politics. Together these volumes form a brilliant analysis of the changing conditions of social and political life by one of the most original thinkers writing today Liquid Modernity......Page 1 Contents......Page 3 Foreword: On Being Light and Liquid......Page 5 Emancipation......Page 20 Individuality......Page 57 Time/Space......Page 95 Work......Page 134 Community......Page 172 Afterthought On Writing; On Writing Sociology......Page 206 Notes......Page 221 Index......Page 229 In this text, Bauman examines how we have moved away from a "heavy" and "solid", hardware-focused modernity to a "light" and "liquid", software-based modernity. This passage, he argues, has brought profound change to all aspects of the human condition