In this major new assessment of Zygmunt Bauman's work, Smith gives a clear introduction to this controversial and challenging sociologist.
Preface x
Part I Setting the Agenda
1 Living Without a Guidebook 3
Introduction 3
Critical perspectives 3
Sociology plus 5
What is modernity? 6
What is postmodernity? 9
Why Bauman is worth reading 14
The myth of the cage-dwellers 16
The rest of this book 18
2 No Easy Choices 20
Culture, choice and sociology 20
Bauman’s vision 23
Bauman’s career and intellectual influences: a brief overview 27
3 Who is Zygmunt Bauman? 33
Faith, hope and charity 33
The roots of wisdom 34
Bauman’s agenda 35
A brief biography 38
Transitions 41
Puzzles 43
Anti-Semitism and Bauman 43
Neither insider nor outsider 44
Marx and the art of motorcycle maintenance 45
4 The Power of the Past 48
Discovering postmodernity 48
From priest to prophet 50
Out of Poland 52
A sociology for strangers 56
Part II The Road to Postmodernity
5 The Road to the West 61
Keeping on the road 61
An unexpected discovery 62
Intellectuals and innovation 64
Bauman, Galbraith and Mill 66
Modern times, modern Marxism 67
Between Clƒ-
![Zygmunt Bauman Prophet of Postmodernity [Paperback]](/itemImage/2/6/0/8/2_1510215.jpg "Zygmunt Bauman Prophet of Postmodernity [Paperback] xxx")