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articles. Though patchwork in its construction, this is Bauman s only
real attempt to develop something that might be described as a toolkit
sociology, but in saying that, this inclination only really relates to the
chapter on A Sociological Theory of Postmodernity . The rest of the
book provides one of the most telling discussions ever written of the
relationship between postmodernism and sociology and the implications
this has for sociological revisionism. The book also contains a gem of a
chapter which provides a condensed discussion of Bauman s classic study
Legislators and Interpreters: On Modernity, Post-Modernity and Intellec-
tuals, Cambridge: Polity Press (1987).
After the preparation suggested above, there should be no problem
getting to grips with the rest of Bauman s work; the only real obstacle
will be deciding where to begin. As I ve intimated throughout this book,
Bauman is that rarity, a generalist who extends the power of sociology to
create a universe rather than a clique and although he adopts an esoteric
perspective, his sociology has the capacity to evoke the full social
spectrum of liquid modernity the worlds of black and white, men and
women, rich and poor. A good example of this is Wasted Lives: Modernity
and its Outcasts Oxford: Blackwell (2004), an amazing feat of empathy,
in which Bauman s troubled insight deals with the shock of globalization,
144 Suggestions for Further Reading
environmental pollution and mass displacements. Yet it is the sense of
the betrayal of people s lives in the past, but more particularly in the
present which is the wounded territory of the book.
The reader will find that everywhere in Bauman s work, the meta-
phorical language is just as superbly judged as the critical engagement
with the topic or theme is razor sharp. Whether writing about waste,
poverty, consumer culture, community, love or identity, this poet of liquid
modernity reminds us what it is like to have been blessed with sociological
imagination, wide awake to the world as it exists right now. If Wasted
Lives is an impressive book it is also merely one of the latest instalments
in Bauman s impressive project. Sociologists who are serious about their
craft owe themselves the pleasure of keeping up with him.
Notes 145
Notes
PREFACE
1 Ulrich Beck, Zombie Categories: Interview with Ulrich Beck , in
U. Beck and E. Beck-Gernsheim Individualization, London: Sage
(2002), pp. 202 13, argues that social class has today become a
zombie category for a number of reasons which can be identified
with processes of individualization, detraditionalization and
disembedding in Giddens s meaning.
2 I am indebted to Terry Eagleton, Anti-Humanism , in London Review
of Books (2003), 26(3) 5 February, for this line of argument, who in
his review of Amit Chaudhuri s D.H. Lawrence and Difference :
Post-Coloniality and the Poetry of the Present, Oxford: Oxford
University Press, provides a critique of the anti-philosopher tradition
in modernist thought, extending from Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and
Heidegger to Wittgenstein, Adorno, Benjamin, Derrida as well as
the work of Richard Rorty.
3 From Karl Marx, Theses of Feuerbach (1888), p. xi, quoted in the
3rd edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Oxford: Oxford
University Press (1979).
146 Notes
4 Zygmunt Bauman, Identity: Conversations with Bendetto Vecchi,
Cambridge: Polity Press (2004), p. 33.
5 Zygmunt Bauman, Liquid Sociality , in N. Gane, The Future of
Social Theory, London: Continuum (2004), p. 22.
6 Zygmunt Bauman, Hermeneutics and Modern Social Theory , in
D. Held and J.B. Thompson (eds) Social Theory and Modern
Societies: Anthony Giddens and His Critics, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press (1989), p. 55.
1 AN INTERIM CAREER REPORT
1 Peter Beilharz, Editor s Introduction: Bauman s Modernity , in P.
Beilharz (ed.) Zygmunt Bauman: Sage Masters of Modern Social
Thought, London: Sage (2002), p. xxii.
2 Keith Tester, The Social Thought of Zygmunt Bauman, Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan (2004), p. 137.
3 Zygmunt Bauman, Legislators and Interpreters: On Modernity, Post-
Modernity and Intellectuals, Cambridge: Polity Press (1987), p. 119.
4 viz. Jean Baudrillard, Simulations. New York: Semiotext(e) (1983).
5 Gary Genosko, Baudrillard and Signs: Signification Ablaze, London:
Routledge (1994), p. 36, defines Baudrillard s code as a system of
rules for the combination of stable sets of terms into messages .
Baudrillard himself would almost certainly describe this attempt to
categorize the code as absurd. Indeed, if there are no more agents
(subjects), only objects, how can there be any system of rules?
6 Jean Baudrillard, The Mirror of Production, St Louis: Telos Press
(1975), p. 127.
7 Richard Harland, Superstructuralism: The Philosophy of Struc-
turalism and Post-Structuralism, London: Routledge (1987).
8 Zygmunt Bauman, Intimations of Postmodernity, London: Routledge
(1992).
9 Zygmunt Bauman, in Tony Blackshaw, Interview with Zygmunt
Bauman , Network: Newsletter of the British Sociological Association
(2002), number 83, October, p. 2.
10 Liquid Sociality , p. 22.
11 George Ritzer, Postmodern Social Theory, London: McGraw-Hill
(1997), p. 159.
12 Bauman, Intimations of Postmodernity, p. 41.
13 Philip Abrams, Historical Sociology, Shepton Mallet: Open Books
(1982).
14 Bauman, Intimations of Postmodernity, p. 204.
Notes 147
15 Zygmunt Bauman, in Tony Blackshaw, Interview with Zygmunt
Bauman , p. 3.
16 Ian Varcoe, Zygmunt Bauman , in Anthony Elliott and Larry Ray
(eds) Key Contemporary Social Theorists, Oxford: Blackwell (2003),
p. 39.
17 Hermeneutics and Modern Social Theory , p. 40.
18 Zygmunt Bauman, in Z. Bauman and K. Tester, Conversations with
Zygmunt Bauman, Cambridge: Polity Press (2001), p. 32.
19 Ian Varcoe, Zygmunt Bauman , p. 42.
20 Zygmunt Bauman, Foreword by Zygmunt Bauman: Individually,
Together , in Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim (eds)
Individualization, London: Sage (2002), p. xxii.
21 Zygmunt Bauman, in an interview with Milena Yakimova, A
Postmodern Grid on the Worldmap , in Eurozine (2002) at http://
www.eurozine.com/article/2002-11-08-bauman-en.htmtl.
22 Tony Blackshaw, The Sociology of Sport Reassessed in Light of
the Phenomenon of Zygmunt Bauman , in International Review for
the Sociology of Sport (2002), 37(2), pp. 199 217.
23 Keith Tester, The Social Thought of Zygmunt Bauman, p. 1.
24 Ibid., p. 2.
25 Quoted after James Wood, The Slightest Sardine in The London
Review of Books (2004), 26(10) May.
26 Charles Wright Mills, The Sociological Imagination. Harmondsworth:
Penguin (1959).
27 The Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) is a competitive process
by which the research performance of United Kingdom university
departments is assessed by nominated academics in their subject
fields.
28 Bauman, Intimations of Postmodernity, p. 190.
29 For a further elaboration on Elias s thought see Robert Van Krieken,
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