Zygmunt Bauman was a Polish-British sociologist best known for his theory of liquid modernity, which described the contemporary social world as characterized by constant flux, instability, and the erosion of the stable structures, such as class, community, and lifelong employment, that had earlier given people fixed reference points for identity and life planning. In Modernity and the Holocaust (1989) he argued that the Holocaust was not an aberration from modern civilization but a possibility rooted in modernity's own bureaucratic rationality and capacity for instrumental, morally detached administration. His later work extended the liquid modernity framework to consumer culture, love, fear, and globalization.
Facts
BirthplacePoznań, Second Polish Republic 1 Nationality / Culture Defining ContributionSocial theorist best known for the concept of liquid modernity and for Modernity and the Holocaust, which argued the Holocaust was enabled by the bureaucratic rationality and instrumental reason intrinsic to modernity itself. 1 Notable WorkModernity and the Holocaust 1 In the Other Atlases
- Also in Geography Atlas: Poland, nationality there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: United Kingdom, nationality there.
Sources
1. Zygmunt Bauman (Wikipedia)
WikipediaLead paragraph, opening sentence (birth date)
Zygmunt Bauman (19 November 1925-9 January 2017) was a Polish-British sociologist and philosopher.
Lead paragraph, opening sentence (birth year)
Zygmunt Bauman (19 November 1925-9 January 2017) was a Polish-British sociologist and philosopher.
Lead paragraph, opening sentence (death date)
Zygmunt Bauman (19 November 1925-9 January 2017) was a Polish-British sociologist and philosopher.
Lead paragraph, opening sentence (death year)
Zygmunt Bauman (19 November 1925-9 January 2017) was a Polish-British sociologist and philosopher.
Lead paragraph, opening sentence (nationality)
Zygmunt Bauman (19 November 1925-9 January 2017) was a Polish-British sociologist and philosopher.
Lead paragraph, final sentence (defining contribution)
Bauman was a social theorist, writing on issues as diverse as modernity and the Holocaust, consumerism in postmodernity, and liquid modernity.
Career section, Modernity and the Holocaust paragraph
One of Bauman's most famous books, Modernity and the Holocaust argues that the Holocaust was fundamentally enabled by the features of modernity itself-bureaucratic rationality, instrumental reason, and the social production of moral indifference.
Early life and education section, opening sentence (birthplace)
Bauman was born to a non-observant Polish Jewish family in Poznań, Second Polish Republic, in 1925.
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