139
Auschwitz concentration camp
in Poland was built and run by the
Nazis. Bauman cites the Holocaust
as a product of the highly rational,
planned nature of solid modernity.
activity and institutions along
bureaucratic lines, where practical
reasoning can be employed to
solve problems and create technical
solutions. Bureaucracy persists
because it is the most efficient
way of organizing and ordering
the actions and interactions of
large numbers of people. While
bureaucracy has its distinctly
negative aspects (for example,
that human life can become
dehumanized and devoid of
spontaneity and creativity), it is
highly effective at accomplishing
goal-oriented tasks.
Another key characteristic of
solid modernity, according to
Bauman, is a very high degree
of equilibrium in social
structures—meaning that people
live with a relatively stable set of
norms, traditions, and institutions.
By this, Bauman is not suggesting
that social, political, and economic
changes do not occur in solid
modernity, just that changes occur
in ways that are relatively ordered
and predictable. The economy
provides a good example: in solid
modernity, the majority of people—
from members of the working
class through to middle-class
professionals—enjoyed relatively
high levels of job security. As
a consequence, they tended to
remain in the same geographical
area, grow up in the same
neighborhood, and attend the same
school as their parents and other
family members.
Bauman regards solid modernity
as one-directional and progressive—
a realization of the Enlightenment
view that reason leads to the
emancipation of humankind. As
scientific knowledge advances,
so does society’s understanding of,
and control over, the natural and
social worlds. In solid modernism,
according to Bauman, this supreme
faith in scientific reasoning was
embodied in the social and
political institutions that ❯❯See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Michel Foucault 52–55 ■ Max Weber 38–45 ■
Anthony Giddens 148–49 ■ Ulrich Beck 156–61 ■ Antonio Gramsci 178–79
LIVING IN A GLOBAL WORLD
Zygmunt Bauman
Born in 1925, Zygmunt
Bauman is a Polish sociologist
from a nonpracticing Polish-
Jewish family who were
forced to relocate to the Soviet
Union in 1939 following the
Nazi invasion. After serving in
the Polish division of the Red
Army, he moved to Israel. In
1971 he settled in England,
where he is now professor
emeritus of sociology at the
University of Leeds.
Bauman is the author of
more than 40 books, of which
20 or so have been written
since his retirement in 1990. In
recognition of his contribution
to sociology, he was awarded
the Theodor W. Adorno Award
in 1998 and the Prince of
Asturias Award in 2010. The
University of Leeds created the
acclaimed Bauman Institute
in 2010 in his honor, and in
2013 the Polish director
Bartek Dziadosz produced
a film of his life and views
entitled The Trouble With
Being Human These Days.Key works1989 Modernity and the
Holocaust
2000 Liquid Modernity
2011 Culture in a Liquid
Modern World