Zygmunt Baumana s new book is a brilliant exploration, from a sociological point of view, of the a tabooa subject in modern societies: death and dying. The book develops a new theory of the ways in which human mortality is reacted to, and dealt with, in social institutions and culture. The hypothes[...]

In this new book, Bauman examines how we have moved away from a a heavya and a solida , hardware--focused modernity to a a lighta and a liquida , software--based modernity. This passage, he argues, has brought profound change to all aspects of the human condition. The new remoteness and un--reacha[...]

We are spurred into action by our troubles and fears; but all too often our action fails to address the true causes of our worries. When trying to make sense of our lives, we tend to blame our own failings and weaknesses for our discomforts and defeats. And in doing so, we make things worse rather t[...]

A set of interviews with one of the world's leading social thinkers, ranging from autobiographical reflection to guidelines for developing the reader's understanding, this text also gives important background information on the assumptions of Bauman's groundbreaking work.[...]

The production of a human wastea -- or more precisely, wasted lives, the a superfluousa populations of migrants, refugees and other outcasts -- is an inevitable outcome of modernization. It is an unavoidable side--effect of economic progress and the quest for order which is characteristic of moder[...]

More than ever before, our conflict--ridden, drifting planet needs the qualities that Europe, unique among the continents, has developed in more than two millennia of history: its self--criticism, its urge to self--transcendence, exploration and experiment, its conviction that alternative and better[...]

* A new book by one of the most original and brilliant social thinkers of our time. * Extends and develops some of the key themes in other Bauman titles, namely what it is like to live in a time of 'liquid modernity', identity, culture and consumerism.[...]

Modernity was supposed to be the period in human history when the fears that pervaded social life in the past could be left behind and human beings could at last take control of their lives and tame the uncontrolled forces of the social and natural worlds. And yet, at the dawn of the twenty-first ce[...]