What remains of the idea of liquid modernity? Is Bauman’s thought still relevant? This volume aims to answer these questions, without forgetting the vastness and complexity of his work, where the idea of liquidity remains fundamental, before and after the central turning point of the year 2000, when he published Liquid Modernity.Bauman’s legacy is multiform and complex, subdivided into partial legacies, not all of which are homogeneous and acceptable without benefit of inventory. Th...

Today we hear much talk of crisis and comparisons are often made with the Great Depression of the 1930s, but there is a crucial difference that sets our current malaise apart from the 1930s: today we no longer trust in the capacity of the state to resolve the crisis and to chart a new way forward. In our increasingly globalized world, states have been stripped of much of their power to shape the course of events. Many of our problems are globally produced but the volume of power at the dis...

Human history is a history of individuals – of kings and queens, of leaders and thinkers, and of the many individuals who struggle, work hard and find their paths in life. It is also the history of individuation, understood as a continuous search for autonomy, self-affirmation and the achievement of personal goals. But today this process of individuation is coming to an end and morphing into its opposite: disindividuation. The individual is giving way to the progressive loss of individuali...

This book examines the paradoxical collapse of privacy in contemporary society. The text analyses how personal boundaries are increasingly dissolved through digital technologies and how social networks and new media technologies encourage individuals to publicly expose their most intimate thoughts and experiences in search for recognition and connection in a fragmented, liquid modern world.Throughout eight focused chapters, this book explores the transformation of community bonds, ...

Human civilization is founded on ethical principles, norms of behaviour that have accumulated over time. Perhaps the oldest of ethical principles is the rejection of violence, which includes the respect for life and for the physical and psychological integrity of others. But, in some circumstances, violence itself can be regarded as ethical – for example, when it is used by states claiming to act in self-defence. In these circumstances, the need to defend oneself against an enemy can trans...

Our societies are in transition, spurred on by a pandemic that disrupted many aspects of the social world we once took for granted. We’ve left behind the ‘solid modernity’ of the twentieth century and even the ‘liquid modernity’ so brilliantly analysed by Zygmunt Bauman, but what kind of society is now taking shape around us?In this highly original reflection on the current state of our world, Carlo Bordoni argues that we are on the threshold of ‘post-society’, a condition in which...

The economic crisis has brought social differences to the fore, reinventing the old question of inequality as democracy’s missed opportunity. Many have attempted to find a rational explanation of the problem, tracing it back to poor economic policy and reckless liberalisation of finance, or the crisis of banks and governments, as well as the collapse of family relationships. At the same time, globalisation has reduced the differences between some nations, bringing emerging countries to the...

This book explores the ancient question of why man seeks to go beyond his limits. A presumptuous tendency known by the ancient Greeks as hubris and believed to be punished by the gods, it developed from a need for our survival to a habit, as humanity has subdued animals, dominated nature, increased knowledge and sought even to overcome death. It also lies behind the crisis of our time, as the values of democracy, freedom, equality and progress have been weakened – sacrificed to ex...

Challenging the thought of Zygmunt Bauman on the subject of liquid modernity, where everything has become unstable, precarious and uncertain, Carlo Bordoni (author with Bauman of »State of Crisis«) proposes to look at contemporary society as an »interregnum«, a temporary break with the past. In a condition characterised by anomie, the questioning of democratic achievements and the primacy of an unbridled economy, he offers a new perspective on our social condition. Understanding the interr...

This book examines the insecurity that besets our lives in the contemporary world, whether as a result of natural disasters, human negligence or, more recently, threats to security in the form of terrorist activity, which itself gives rise to new fears: fear of travel, agoraphobia, distrust of others and existential anxieties.Revealing the connection between the two components of our insecurity, as reflecting on and conditioning human existence, and producing social problems, the a...

Challenging the thought of Zygmunt Bauman on the subject of liquid modernity, where everything has become unstable, precarious and uncertain, Carlo Bordoni (author with Bauman of »State of Crisis«) proposes to look at contemporary society as an »interregnum«, a temporary break with the past. In a condition characterised by anomie, the questioning of democratic achievements and the primacy of an unbridled economy, he offers a new perspective on our social condition. Understanding the interr...

A groundbreaking debunking of moderate attempts to resolve financial crisesIn the ruins of the 2007–2008 financial crisis, self-proclaimed progressives the world over clamored to resurrect the economic theory of John Maynard Keynes. The crisis seemed to expose the disaster of small-state, free-market liberalization and deregulation. Keynesian political economy, in contrast, could put the state back at the heart of the economy and arm it with the knowledge needed to...