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Liquid Times: Living in an Age of Uncertainty 1st Edition

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Zygmunt Bauman (Author)
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Zygmunt Bauman (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars 12 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 978-0745639871
ISBN-10: 0745639879
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 128 pages
  • Publisher: Polity; 1 edition (December 26, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0745639879
  • ISBN-13: 978-0745639871
  • Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.4 x 7.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #53,007 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsBrilliant
By Malvin VINE VOICE on May 27, 2007
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
"Liquid Times" offers a brilliant series of thoughts about postmodern life by master philosopher/sociologist Zygmunt Bauman. This accessible book succinctly introduces the reader to Mr. Bauman's theories about the passage from the "solid" phase of welfare statism to the "liquid" phase of neoliberalism which have rightly earned the author international acclaim and recognition, particularly among activists in the anti-globalization movement. In this highly rewarding book, Mr. Bauman shares some of his knowledge gained from over eighty years of high-level scholarship and diverse life experiences, rewarding the reader with a number of unique, compelling and penetrating insights into our postmodern condition.

Mr. Bauman contends that as multinational corporations have wrested economic power from state control, individuals have born the cost of change: the evisceration of the social safety net compels individuals to sink or swim. Mr. Bauman describes how urban elites have become disconnected from the working class, residing in tightly-controlled enclaves of security while the masses have been left behind to fend for themselves in slums or crime-ridden shantytowns. As globalization depletes resources and produces prodigious amounts of human waste, the author believes that refugee camps represent only the most severe manifestation of the permanency of transience, as unwanted populations are forever stranded in a 'nowhereville' of non-citizenship.

Indeed, Mr. Bauman asserts that the state finds newfound legitimacy in law enforcement and militarization.Read more ›
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4.0 out of 5 starsFearful Times
By Juan del Valle on June 8, 2009
Format: Paperback
This book is a quick exploration of the main causes/symptoms that make our present lives uncertain and full of fears. Fragmentation, instability, lack of structure, absence of universal projects, and individual responsibility as the only venue for our social and global problems are the main characteristics of our new reality. As a consequence, we live in fear. Politics and advertising exploit this weakness, fueling a vicious cycle from which we try--seldom successfully--to escape: the more we fear, the more we are subject to feel unstable and the more we suspect anything and anyone who might present a risk to our individual situation. We fear because we know we are not in control anymore. Consequently, we reject and protect ourselves from strangers, migrants, or the unemployed, who represent not only the disturbing presences of the uncanny, but also a symbolic abyss that opens in front of us. We react by limiting their access to our social and urban space, by withdrawing into individual isolation, and by consuming readily disposable products and symbols. Zygmunt Bauman does not believe that this is a long-term solution. The author does not elaborate on clear alternatives to this situation except when at the beginning of the book (p. 26) he mentions, almost in passing, the need to seek a planetary solution to our democracies.

The book is divided in 5 sections ("Introduction: Bravely into the Hotbed of Uncertainties," "Liquid Modern Life and its Fears," "Humanity on the Move," "State, Democracy and the Management of Fears," "Out of Touch Together," and "Utopia in the Age of Uncertainty"). I find the last section the least interesting because of its vagueness. Although the writing is engaging, not all the quotes are fully documented; for instance, many times the author's name will be included but not the work and the page numbers.
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4.0 out of 5 starsA Meta-Critique of the Excesses of Globalization
By A Certain Bibliophile on September 9, 2011
Format: Paperback
Zygmunt Bauman is a Polish-born sociologist in the Marxist tradition mostly known for his thoroughgoing critiques of consumerism, modernity, and cultural memory (especially the Holocaust). His "liquid" books, including "Liquid Modernity" (2000), "Liquid Love: On the Frailty of Human Bonds" (2003), "Liquid Life" (2005), "Liquid Fear" (2006), and the book presently considered, "Liquid Times: Living in an Age of Uncertainty" (2006), for the most part seem to be shorter books whose aim is to adumbrate the arguments Bauman has made over the course of his career.

The focus of "Liquid Times" is a meta-critique of globalization and all of the problems it presents, from rootlessness to the ubiquity of the security sate, with Bauman's central thesis being that the consequences of globalization have seriously hindered attempts at international justice. The goal of globalization - to eradicate any trade barriers and therefore create "markets without frontiers" - results in the transition from a world where people are subject to the laws and protections of their home countries to one in which radical fear and lack of security are reified and the "fading of human bonds and the wilting of solidarity" reigns. This lack of security results in fear and a perceived lack of control, which in turn perpetuates and shores up the conspicuous shift toward national security that we have experienced in advanced liberal democracies. And so the pernicious cycle goes.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 starsFor Bauman fans only

This is not an easy book to read. The author seems to leap from one topic to another, leaving the reader to wonder what he missed. Read more

Published 7 months ago by Mark Schenk
5.0 out of 5 starsAccurate and precise accounts of the challenges faces humans in ...

Accurate and precise accounts of the challenges faces humans in the global society. Pessimistic with a ray of hope. Read more

Published 8 months ago by william charles cleary
5.0 out of 5 starsEven better than the 1st Book (Liquid Modernity)

Even better than the 1st Book (Liquid Modernity). It tackles important and, for laypersons, somewhat difficult themes in an easy, interesting way.

Published 10 months ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

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Published 13 months ago by leonardo baumworcel
5.0 out of 5 starsA comprehensive overview of present times

It gives a sharp description of our predictement in times of uncertainty due to the stress of ever global and personal choices.

Published on May 11, 2014 by Ruggero Rapparini
1.0 out of 5 starsA waste of valuable time...

This book is an unsubstantiated rant. A "this is true because I say it" sort of thing. He uses lots of big words to show us he has a good vocabulary, but he is clearly not... Read more

Published on April 13, 2014 by MM
5.0 out of 5 starsInsightful

I found his insights a good complement to reading Chomsky's thoughts on the workings of power. I recommend it to those who cannot help themselves but think about what sort of world... Read more

Published on March 25, 2013 by J.R. Maramaldo
5.0 out of 5 starsAn excellent analysis of present times

I couldn't put this book down as I started reading it, and have read it twice now, and ordered others from the same author to better understand his framework. Read more

Published on January 19, 2012 by Dioskuri
4.0 out of 5 starsYes, life today is an infinite volume of possible permutations

Social commentary of late has been extremely emotional and in many instances harsh in its critique of contemporary times. Read more

Published on April 8, 2010 by Dr. Lee D. Carlson

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