Hidden Paths in Zygmunt Bauman’s Sociology: Editorial Introduction

Abstract

Zygmunt Bauman. What does the name mean to you? Chances are, if you're taking the time to read these thoughts on the first anniversary of his passing, the name means 'inspiration', 'imagination', perhaps even 'perspiration' if-like us-you've tried to keep up with him in either publication or conversation. If you are from the world of sociology, which he always declared to be his home, then chances are that the name Zygmunt Bauman may also mean 'over-generalization', perhaps even 'frustration'. Especially in the UK, methodological sensitivities meant that he spent his long academic life held firmly at the threshold for want of a more robust and evidence-based explanation of how he had arrived there. Zygmunt Bauman. A stranger at the door. From his home in Leeds, where he had lived since the early 1970s, Bauman diagnosed the most pressing concerns of our times, forever inviting us to question the ostensibly unquestionable aspects of our shared lives and to see the world anew. Across more than 60 books, he addressed such timeless aspects of the human condition as freedom and security, power and politics, ethics and morality, identity and community, anxiety and uncertainty, love and evil, hope and nostalgia. From 2000 onwards, Bauman became synonymous with a style of 'metaphorical thinking' in the manner of Hannah Arendt, through which the image of 'liquidity' was regularly deployed in order to analyse the increasing absence of solid structures and institutions that once provided the stable foundations for our shared world. This 'liquid modern' world of ours, he argued, was like all liquids: in constant flux, it is unable to stand still and

Ulrich Beck: E-Special Introduction

“…Whilst his appreciation of ambiguity and consideration of conflicting futures opened him up to charges of theoretical inconsistency, such sideswipes largely missed the point. Like his contemporary Zygmunt Bauman, Beck cannot be accurately remembered as either an optimist, or a pessimist (see Campbell et al, 2018). Indubitably, his sanguine manner powered pulsating strands of hope that animated his work, but he was, at heart, very much a pragmatist.…”

Sixty-three years of thinking sociologically: Compiling the bibliography of Zygmunt Bauman

“…Bernstein (Bauman, 1987) and Gillian Rose (1993bRose ( , 1994. These are each "hidden paths" (Campbell et al, 2018) or "otherwise hidden avenues in the thought for which Bauman has become well known" (Jacobsen & Tester, 2005:8).…”

“…5 Also neglected are his commentaries on many of the major figures of sociology classical and contemporary expressed through artfully crafted review essays, such as those on Norbert Elias (Bauman, 1979, 1993a), Richard J. Bernstein (Bauman, 1987) and Gillian Rose (Bauman, 1993b, 1994). These are each ‘hidden paths’ (Campbell et al, 2018) or ‘otherwise hidden avenues in the thought for which Bauman has become well known’ (Jacobsen and Tester, 2005: 8).…”

Política nacional para a prevenção e controle do câncer na rede de atenção à saúde das pessoas com doenças crônicas: um olhar pautado em Zygmunt Bauman

“…A sociologia apresenta um olhar analítico sobre a vida cotidiana e instituições, conferindo uma estruturação questionadora sobre a realidade social e gerando novos entendimentos, tem o papel de não confundir conhecimentos já consagrados explicando o que se encontra "entre parênteses" e somando ao quadro teórico do objeto estudado. O papel dos intelectuais (acrescentamos pesquisadores) é prático e não seria mais o de estudar a realidade longe das construções e racionalidades do Estado, o papel do intelectual é traduzir e interpretar a situação social por meio destas construções e da pós-modernidade (Bauman & May, 2010;Campbell et al, 2018).…”