ZYGMUNT BAUMAN: BIOGRAPHY, THOUGHT (PHILOSOPHY) AND WORKS - PHILOSOPHY - 2025

Zygmunt Bauman (1925 - 2017) was a Polish philosopher, sociologist and author of Jewish descent. He gained fame for having created the theory of "liquid modernity" and for his outstanding work that, among other awards, won him the 2010 Prince of Asturias.

During his youth he had to leave the country in which he was born because of the Nazi occupation. The young man and his family found refuge in the Soviet Union in 1939. Then Bauman joined the ranks of the Communist Party at the age of 19.

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It was around this time that Bauman began a military career to which he devoted most of his time until 1948. During that period, the Pole was also in charge of completing his studies in sociology at the Academy of Social and Political Sciences in Warsaw.

Then he began his career as a university teacher and began to write essays that served as the foundation for his subsequent approaches. Bauman worked at the University of Warsaw between 1964 and 1968.

The then teacher was the victim of an anti-Semitic purge promoted by a sector of the Communist Party in Poland in the late 1960s. Again he had to leave the country as a consequence of his Jewish ancestors even though he was not a Zionist.

He went to Israel with his family, then he was in the United States and Canada. In the three nations he served as a university professor, until in 1971 he definitively established his residence in England, a country that would later grant him nationality.

Since the 1950s, Bauman began an intense activity as an author. His best known work was entitled Liquid Modernity and it was published in 2004. He coined that term to refer to the irreversible and constant changes that occur in today's society.

Biography

Early years

Zygmunt Bauman was born on November 19, 1925 in the city of Poznan in Poland. His parents were of Jewish origin, although they did not faithfully follow the mandates of religion and their names were Sophia Cohn and Moritz Bauman.

When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, the Bauman family managed to escape and found refuge in the Soviet Union. There the young Zygmunt joined the Polish troops, which were controlled by the Soviets.

Also, in 1944, Bauman began to serve in the Communist Party. In those days he also started in a position in the Internal Security Corps, known as KBW. There it is assumed that he carried out intelligence work until 1953.

Bauman had returned to Poland after the end of World War II. Then he studied Sociology at the University of Warsaw, the same house of studies in which he later became a professor himself.

After graduation he worked for a time as an assistant to another sociologist working at the University of Warsaw, Julian Hochfeld, who had a leaning towards Marxism.

Second migration

It was not until 1962 that Bauman was granted the post of tenured professor, because that was when Julian Hochfeld moved to Paris to take up a post at UNESCO.

However, he did not occupy the tenured chair as a teacher for a long time, since after having spent 14 years teaching at the University of Warsaw, Bauman had to leave his position.

In 1968 Mieczyslaw Moczar, who was at the head of the Polish Communist Security Police, promoted a purge within the government. It was then that Bauman resigned from the United Polish Workers Party.

The Polish political crisis of 1968 resulted in the massive emigration of Poles of Jewish descent. Among them was Bauman, who renounced his nationality and applied for that of Israel, the country to which he first moved.

His first teaching position was in Israel, at Tel Aviv University, but later he went to other nations such as the United States, Canada and Australia. Until, finally, he found his home in England.

England

Zygmunt Bauman settled in England with his family from 1971. There he took a post as Professor of Sociology at the University of Leeds and on several occasions served as head of that department.

Until then, Bauman had published much of his work in Poland and was an authority on the subject. But it was from his arrival in England that his texts and approaches took on international relevance beyond an intellectual sociological circle.

In addition, Bauman began to write his work in English from the 70s, making it accessible to the masses interested in the matter.

However, his true popular recognition began at the beginning of the new millennium, with the publication of his book entitled Liquid Modernity, which was released in 2000. It also inspired many activists in the world who opposed globalization.

Another of his most recognized works was Modernity and the Holocaust, published in 1989. For Bauman the concept of “modernity” was fundamental. He considered that it maintained its validity, with radical changes, but not so intense as to speak of postmodernity.

Death

Zygmunt Bauman died on January 9, 2017 in Leeds, England, at the age of 91. The person in charge of announcing the event was Aleksandra Kania, who was his wife from 2015 until her death. She explained that at the time of the sociologist's death, he was with his family.

The Pole was married to the writer Janina Bauman from 1948, until she died in 2009. Together they had three daughters; Lidia, who dedicated herself to the plastic arts, Irena, an architect, and the third, who works as an educator, named Anna.

His grandson Michael Sfard is a renowned lawyer and writer based in Israel; He is the son of Anna along with her husband Leon, an Israeli mathematician.

Recognitions

Among the most prominent honors Zygmunt Bauman received is the European Amalfi Prize for Sociology and Social Sciences, which he received in 1992. Six years later, he was recognized with the Theodor W. Adorno Prize.

Also, in 2010 Bauman and Alain Touraine received the Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities. That same year, the University of Leeds, where the Polish-born author served for a long time, created the Bauman Institute, a branch of the Sociology department.

Another of Bauman's honors was an honorary degree in Modern Languages ​​from the University of Salento.

Thought

Zygmunt Bauman was interested in social changes and their consequences in all links of society. He dealt with topics such as consumerism, globalization, in addition to focusing on issues such as the analysis of modernity and its patterns in different situations.

Earlier in his career he had devoted himself solely to the Marxist approach to the study of societies, but then he became critical and began to develop his own ideas.

Modernity and the Holocaust

The sociologist considered that the Holocaust was possible thanks to modernity and that it was not, as is widely accepted, a regression to barbarism. Bauman explained that in an effort to know and have control over everything that used to be a mystery to humanity, there was a dangerous attitude to the unknown.

In Modernity and the Holocaust, Bauman explained that what is not known represents a problem for modern society and that extermination events have a high probability of reappearing or may even be experiencing in today's world.

One of his most famous books, published in 2000, was Liquid Modernity, there he managed to expand his ideas about the modern order that he had begun to develop at the end of the eighties with Modernity and the Holocaust (1989).

In any case, Bauman continued to delve into concepts related to modernity in his later works.

Liquid modernity

For a time, Zygmunt Bauman tried to theorize about postmodernity, but came to the conclusion that such a thing cannot be talked about since the modern scheme remains.

For Bauman, modernity seeks order through the categorization of the environment in order to turn it into something predictable. However, he considers that there is a duality in seeing changes in the social, economic and cultural sphere as the second modern characteristic.

It was then that he decided to coin the concepts of "liquid modernity" and "solid". Bauman believed that concepts changed rapidly today and equated them with what would happen in society if it melted away.

He thought that the most dangerous thing about "liquid modernity" was the fact that it was modernity itself, accepting that it was a failure.

Social networks

With regard to online social interactions, Bauman thought they were a trap, since the individual surrounds himself with those who think like him and determines his affections with numbers of followers or friends.

That way, he would be losing contact with his social skills and also the ability to deal with opposing opinions, remaining with "the echo of his voice." Also, to provide a false sense of company amid modern isolation.

Published works

Warsaw

- Issues of Democratic Centralism in the Works of Lenin, 1957 (Zagadnienia centralizmu demokratycznego w pracach Lenina).

- British Socialism: Sources, Philosophy, Political Doctrine, 1959 (Socjalizm brytyjski: Źródła, filozofia, doktryna polityczna).

- Class, Movement, Elite: A Sociological Study on the History of the British Labor Movement, 1960 (Klasa, ruch, elita: Studium socjologiczne dziejów angielskiego ruchu robotniczego).

- On the history of the democratic ideal, 1960 (Z dziejów demokratycznego ideału).

- Carrera: four sociological sketches, 1960 (Kariera: cztery szkice socjologiczne).

- Issues in Contemporary American Sociology, 1961 (Z zagadnień współczesnej socjologii amerykańskiej).

- Party systems of modern capitalism; with Szymon Chodak, Juliusz Strojnowski and Jakub Banaszkiewicz, 1962 (Systemy partyjne współczesnego kapitalizmu).

- The Society We Live In, 1962 (Spoleczeństwo, w ktorym żyjemy).

- Fundamentals of sociology. Issues and concepts, 1962 (Zarys socjologii. Zagadnienia i pojęcia).

- Ideas, ideals, ideologies, 1963 (Idee, ideały, ideologie).

- Outline of the Marxist theory of society, 1964 (Zarys marksistowskiej teorii spoleczeństwa).

- Sociology every day, 1964 (Socjologia na co dzień).

- Visions of a human world: Studies on the birth of society and the role of sociology, 1965 (Wizje ludzkiego świata. Studia nad społeczną genezą i funkcją socjologii).

- Culture and society. Preliminaries, 1966 (Kultura i społeczeństwo. Preliminary).

Leeds

70's

- Between Class and Elite. The Evolution of the British Labor Movement. A Sociological Study, 1972.

- Culture as Praxis, 1973.

- Socialism. La utopia activa, 1976 (Socialism: The Active Utopia).

- Towards a Critical Sociology: An Essay on Common-Sense and Emancipation. 1976.

- Hermeneutics and Social Science: Approaches to Understanding, 1978.

80's

- Memories of Class: The Pre-history and After-life of Class, 1982.

- Stalin and the peasant revolution: a case study in the dialectics of master and slave. 1985.

- Legislators and interpreters: On Modernity, Post-Modernity, and Intellectuals, 1987 (Legislators and interpreters: On Modernity, Post-Modernity, Intellectuals).

- Freedom, 1988 (Freedom).

- Modernity and the Holocaust, 1989 (Modernity and the Holocaust).

90's

- Paradoxes of Assimilation, 1990.

- Thinking sociologically, 1990 (Thinking Sociologically. An introduction for Everyone).

- Modernity and Ambivalence, 1991 (Modernity and Ambivalence).

- Intimations of Postmodernity, 1992.

- Mortality, Immortality and Other Life Strategies. 1992.

- Postmodern Ethics: Sociology and Politics, 1993 (Postmodern Ethics).

- Life in Fragments. Essays in Postmodern Morality, 1995.

- Alone Again - Ethics After Certainty. nineteen ninety six.

- Postmodernity and its Discontents, 1997 (Postmodernity and its Discontents).

- Work, consumerism and the new poor, 1998 (Work, consumerism and the new poor).

- Globalization: Human Consequences, 1998 (Globalization: The Human Consequences).

- In Search of Politics, 1999 (In Search of Politics).

New millenium

- Liquid Modernity, 2000 (Liquid Modernity).

- Community. In search of security in a hostile world, 2001 (Community. Seeking Safety in an Insecure World).

- The Individualized Society, 2001 (The Individualized Society).

- The besieged society, 2002 (Society Under Siege).

- Liquid Love: On the Frailty of Human Bonds, 2003 (Liquid Love: On the Frailty of Human Bonds).

- Confidence and fear in the city, 2003 (City of fears, city of hopes).

- Wasted Lives: Modernity and its Outcasts, 2004 (Wasted Lives. Modernity and its Outcasts).

- Europe: An Unfinished Adventure, 2004 (Europe: An Unfinished Adventure).

- Identidad, 2004 (Identity: Conversations with Benedetto Vecchi).

- Liquid Life, 2005 (Liquid Life).

- Liquid Fear: Contemporary Society and Its Fears, 2006 (Liquid Fear).

- Liquid Times, 2006 (Liquid Times: Living in an Age of Uncertainty).

- Consumption Life, 2007 (Consuming Life).

- Art, liquid? 2007.

- The art of life. Of life as a work of art, 2008 (The Art of Life).

- Archipelago of Exceptions, 2008.

- Multiple cultures, one humanity, 2008.

- The challenges of education in liquid modernity, 2008.

- Time is pressing, 2009 (Living on Borrowed Time: Conversations with Citlali Rovirosa-Madrazo).

2010s

- World-consumption: ethics of the individual in the global village, 2010.

- Collateral damage. Social inequalities in the global era, 2011 (Collateral Damage: Social Inequalities in a Global Age).

- Culture in a Liquid Modern World, 2011 (Culture in a Liquid Modern World).

- Moral blindness. The loss of sensitivity in liquid currency; with Leonidas Donskis, 2013 (Moral Blindness: The Loss of Sensitivity in Liquid Modernity).

- Does the wealth of a few benefit us all? 2013 (Does the Richness of the Few Benefit Us All?).

- State of Crisis. Cambridge: Polity; with Carlo Bordoni, 2014.

- Practices of Selfhood. Cambridge: Polity; with Rein Raud, 2015.

- Management in a Liquid Modern World. Cambridge: Polity; with Irena Bauman, Jerzy Kociatkiewicz and Monika Kostera, 2015.

- On the World and Ourselves. Cambridge: Polity; with Stanisław Obirek, 2015.

- Liquid Evil. Cambridge: Polity; with Leonidas Donskis, 2016.

- Babel. Cambridge: Polity; with Ezio Mauro, 2016.

- Strangers at Our Door, 2016.

- Retrotopia, 2017 (Retrotopia).

- A Chronicle of Crisis: 2011-2016. Social Europe Editions, 2017.

- Liquid generation. Transformations in the 3.0 era. Barcelona: Paidós, 2018.

References

1. En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Zygmunt Bauman. Available at: en.wikipedia.org.
2. Bauer, P. (2019). Zygmunt Bauman - Polish-born sociologist. Encyclopedia Britannica. Available at: britannica.com.
3. Circle of Fine Arts of Madrid, Casa Europa. (2019). Zygmunt Bauman. Available at: circulobellasartes.com.
4. Culture.pl. Adam Mickiewicz Institute (2016). Zygmunt Bauman. Available at: culture.pl.
5. Davis, M. and Campbell, T. (2017). Zygmunt Bauman obituary. The Guardian. Available at: theguardian.com.
6. Time, C. (2017). Farewell to Zygmunt Bauman, great thinker of the 20th century. Time. Available at: eltiempo.com.
7. Querol, R. (2017). Thinker Zygmunt Bauman, 'father' of “liquid modernity” dies. THE COUNTRY. Available at: elpais.com.