Ethics and globalisation in the work of Zygmunt Bauman

This essay explores two prominent theorists and the centrality in their work of aesthetic considerations and the political implications of these.

The Sociology of Zygmunt Bauman: Challenges and …, 2008

Thesis Eleven, vol. 62 no. 1, 121-134 , 2000

Cultural Studies, 2008

A dead hare might be at the bottom of a hunter's list of priorities, but the hunting is at the top of that list, and must stay there, since however vain it might be itself, its vanity is indispensable to cover up that other vanity that truly counts (Bauman, 2004: 99).

This paper presents evidence of the inappropriate reproduction of text in the work of Zygmunt Bauman. The enquiry focuses on his book, Does the Richness of the Few Benefit Us All? (2013), of which around five thousand words appear to have been copied from Bauman’s earlier published work and from other authors’ websites, including Wikipedia, without appropriate attribution. Extending the investigation to a sample of Bauman’s other books, we reveal that twelve contain substantial quantities of text – over 15,000 words per book in the most serious cases – which appear to have been reproduced verbatim or near-verbatim from previous Bauman publications without acknowledgement. We then provide examples of Bauman having copied his own earlier published writing without indication from a book into a journal article, a journal article into a book, and from one journal article into another – bringing the total of inappropriately reproduced text in the works examined to at least 90,000 words. On the basis of these findings, we challenge Bauman’s claim that proper referencing is irrelevant to the quality of an author's scholarship, and argue for the continued importance of careful academic citation.

Jesuit Higher Education Journal, 2015

Zygmunt Bauman’s critical description of liquid modernity provides those of us in Jesuit higher education a fruitful backdrop against which to consider the challenges facing us today. Liquid modernity stands in sharp contrast as a challenge to traditional Jesuit values. It is characterized by a decentering of our world, leaving us without basis for planning and pursuing truth, seeing progress as threat, and resulting in a trivializing of revolutionary movements. According to liquid modern values, money is the exclusive value by which to judge, flexibility trumps commitment, consumerism is the new messianic, and self-protection and self-gratification are the new normal—again, in contrast to Jesuit ideals and pursuits. By drawing from Bauman’s critical account of liquid modernity we can understand the essential significance of Jesuit values, as well as their radical contrast with contemporary culture and society. “I am in awe at everything Francis is doing: I believe his pontificate gives not just the Catholic Church but the entire humanity a chance.” (Z. Bauman)

Motion Pictures, Peter Lang, 2016

Drawing on the globalization theories proposed by Zygmunt Bauman, Ulrich Beck, and Manuel Castells, this article examines the contemporary significance of religious ideas, practises, and discourses. We show that novel patterns of social stratification, identity construction, economic polarization, and the impact of the alleged postmodern 'crisis' on the modern paradigm of science provide the context to the manifold contemporary resurgence of religion. Establishing an analytical dialectic between relevant social theory and the empirical record on millenarianism, religious radicalism, and the relationship between middle-class consumerism and religiosity, we argue that the social and psychological consequences of globalization have heightened the appeal and relevance of religions: As discourses of political resistance, as anxiety-coping mechanisms, and as networks of solidarity and community. In Intimations of Postmodernity, Zygmunt Bauman favorably contrasts a new sociology of postmodernity—the systematic and critical study of an arguably novel historical era and social condition—to postmodern sociology. 1 The latter shares certain conceptual characteristics (notably a relativistic epistemology) with the heterogeneous cultural and intellectual movement designated as postmodernism. Bauman's prolific career since 1992 has been largely dedicated to the former project of a new historical (or historized) sociology focused on the current epoch and its manifold implications. Increasingly uncomfortable about being confused for a postmodernist, 2 however, Bauman has subsequently renamed his object of analysis and critique as Liquid Modernity. 3 As such, he has become part of a group of distinguished commentators for whom globalization is the defining characteristic of the contemporary world.

The present paper examines the moral aspects of solidarity as expressed by the work of Zygmunt Bauman. Influenced by Emmanuel Levinas and drawing upon Sigmund Freud, Hannah Arendt, Georg Simmel and Jacques Derrida, the Polish sociologist presents the relationship between the principle of solidarity and globalization as a conflicting one. In an attempt to delineate the main determinants of Bauman’s thought, we distinguish between two axes, one supportive of the idea of solidarity as prerequisite of a viable political community (together with the principles of Freedom and Difference) and another illustrating the way globalization puts obstacles to its function. More analytically, the arguments for the idea of solidarity are based in: i) the Kantian perspective that a perfect unification of the human species through common citizenship is the destiny Nature has chosen for us, since we all move on the surface of a spherical planet ii) the Levinasian definition of morality as being responsible for the Other’s well- being and iii) Karl Jaspers’ theory on metaphysical guilt, which asserts that the postulate of absolute human solidarity is the foundation stone of all morality and undetachable from a moral stance. Concerning the negative consequences of globalization, the Polish sociologist points out as obstacles to the solidarity i) the fact that the forces of globalization, consumerism and postmodernism have made people into individualized individuals, multiple units of self-identification that have more interest in consumption than citizenship ii) the deep-seated suspicion of the Other that has become the condition sine qua non of human interaction in “liquid life” and iii) the fear of becoming human waste in an ever changing world. Thus, it is interesting to follow Bauman’s thought, considering his insight that solidarity is grounded in a belief that non practicing solidarity leads to Auschwitz.