Zygmunt Bauman was born into a non-practicing Jewish family in Poland on November 19, 1925. In 1970, he became a Professor of Sociology at the University of Leeds, where, since 1990, he has been a Professor Emeritus. Bauman is a prolific writer, producing approximately a book a year well into his 80s. He has frequently engaged some of the most significant current social and political questions, such as war, mass violence (terrorism, and the Holocaust), consumerism, democracy, ethics, and globalization. His works particularly addressing these issues include: Postmodernity and Its Discontents (1997), Modernity and the Holocaust (2001), and Globalization: The Human Consequences (1998).
One of Bauman’s primary themes is that modernity makes universal global justice essentially impossible because modern bureaucracy severs decision makers from the consequences of their decisions (for instance, shareholders of a company in America need never have any direct interaction with their overseas...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bauman Z (1989) Modernity and the holocaust. Cornell University Press, Ithaca
Bauman Z (1996) Assimilation into exile: the Jew as a Polish writer. Poetics Today 17(4):569–597. Duke University Press, Durham
Bauman Z (1997) Postmodernity and its discontents. New York University Press, New York
Bauman Z (1998) Globalization: the human consequences. Columbia University Press, New York
Bauman Z (2001) Community: seeking safety in an insecure world. Polity, Cambridge
Best S (1998) Review: Zygmunt Bauman: personal reflections within the mainstream of modernity. Br J Sociol 49:331–320. Blackwell, Boston
Gardiner M (2006) Review: Bauman before postmodernity: invitation, conversations, and annotated bibliography, 1953–1989. Acta Sociol 49:228–230. Sage Publications, Beverly Hills
Isaac J (1996) A new guarantee on Earth: Hannah Arendt on human dignity and the politics of human rights. Am Polit Sci Rev 90:61–73. American Political Science Association
Scott JC (1976) The moral economy of the peasant. Yale University Press, New Haven
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Currit, A. (2011). Bauman, Zygmunt. In: Chatterjee, D.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Justice. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9160-5_421
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9160-5_421
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-9159-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-9160-5
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law