Life in the era of fluid modernity in the approach of Zygmunt Bauman

Abstract

For many years, Zygmunt Bauman’s intellectual and literary output has enriched the scenery of Polish and world science. As a leading and insightful postmodern observer, he is one of the most respected and inspiring Polish sociologists and philosophers.

He belongs to the generation of Poles born in the period of the Second Polish Republic, referred to as country of elite. These were times in which the old-world order was maintained, and the young generation was being prepared to lead a wise and happy life. The outbreak of war and the spread of totalitarian systems brutally shattered this world order. After the war, during the rebirth of the socialist Poland, Z. Bauman began to work at the University of Warsaw. He has emigrated many times often because of his Jewish origin and the anti-Semitic movements. Initially, he went to Israel and then to Great Britain, where he started working with the University of Leeds. Professor Zygmunt Bauman died in Leeds in 2017, leaving over 50 scientific works.

The Bauman’s essays talk about the troubles of the modern world and the modern man, about freedom and consumption, problems with identity, about the dilemmas of fluid, and therefore, constantly and rapidly changing reality, about losing the most important values in the hierarchy, as well as about hedonism, morality, ethics, and righteousness. And although Z. Bauman proves how today’s world has changed a lot, and how destructive can be the progress of civilization, the need to learn about the life of modern people and to explore the mechanisms of their behaviours is still fundamental and unchangeable.

This text is an attempt at the sociological and psychosocial interpretation of reality, described in the works of Z. Bauman. It has been divided into chapters dealing with momentous aspects of human life: values, moral norms, culture, and humanity. The work captures these components of social temporality through the prism of society and an individual, from the perspective of the fluid modernity of Z. Bauman.