Customer Reviews

The Individualized Society

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The book is divided in three parts--"The Way We Are," "The Way We Think," and "The Way We Act"--which, in turn, have six subsections. This structure helps the readability of the book. Bauman has an enviable capacity to synthesize and organize different aspects of our present life in a homogeneous and suggestive critical discourse. Precariousness, instability and uncertainty seem to be the common axis to most of the chapters of this book. From politics, globalization, and education to ethical responsibility, death, and sex, Bauman presents a convincing image of the society (the world?), which seems to be in a constant state of flux and anxiety. The reader suspects that this book can serve its author almost as an outline of future books, where ideas can be further developed and substantiated with more specific illustrations and examples. In this regard, I find Bauman's analysis stronger in the first two sections of the book (when dealing with issues of politics and ethics) and perhaps less profound or thorough in the last part of the book (when elaborating on sex and love and death). On the other hand, I have to admit that the more theoretical passages forced me to imagine my own examples and connections. This is the first book by Bauman I have read.

I find _The Individualized Society_ much more satisfying and suggestive than Liquid Times: Living in an Age of Uncertainty, which I have also reviewed.