The Sociology Book

138 ZYGMUNT BAUMAN

As society moves away from the first phase of modernity,

known as “solid modernity...”

Global society becomes fluid, highly changeable, and uncertain.

We have entered the world of liquid modernity.

...sources of

identity are

eroded, leading

to fragmented

consumer

identities.

...people traverse

the globe in

vast numbers.

...economic

uncertainty and

competition

grows, and job

security

weakens.

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Liquid modernity

KEY DATES

1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich

Engels publish The Communist

Manifesto, which forecasts the

globalization of capitalism.

1929–35 Antonio Gramsci’s

concept of hegemony shapes

Zygmunt Bauman’s view that

the culture of capitalism is

highly resilient.

1957 The ratification of the

Treaty of Rome allows for the

free flow of workers within

the European Economic

Community.

1976 Bauman is influenced by

Michel Foucault’s Discipline

and Punish, and in particular

by his ideas on surveillance.

2008 British sociologist Will

Atkinson questions whether

Bauman’s notion of liquid

modernity has been subject

to sufficient critical scrutiny.

I

n the late 19th century,
societies began to coalesce
around urban centers, and
Western Europe entered a phase
known as modernity, characterized
by industrialization and capitalism.
According to Polish sociologist
Zygmunt Bauman, societies have
moved away from that first phase
of modernity—which he termed
“solid modernity”—and now
occupy a period in human history
called “liquid modernity.” This new
period is, according to Bauman,
one marked by unrelenting
uncertainty and change that

affects society at the global,

systemic level, and also at the level

of individual experience. Bauman’s

use of the term “liquid” is a

powerful metaphor for present-day

life: it is mobile, fast-flowing,

changeable, amorphous, without

a center of gravity, and difficult to

contain and predict. In essence,

liquid modernity is a way of life

that exists in the continuous,

unceasing reshaping of the

modern world in ways that are

unpredictable, uncertain, and

plagued by increasing levels of risk.

Liquid modernity, for Bauman, is

the current stage in the broader

evolution of Western—and now

also global—society. Like Karl

Marx, Bauman believes that human

society progresses in a way that

means each “new” stage develops

out of the stage before it. Thus it is

necessary to define solid modernity

before it is possible to understand

liquid modernity.

Defining solid modernity

Bauman sees solid modernity as

ordered, rational, predictable, and

relatively stable. Its defining feature

is the organization of human