Paths in Zygmunt Bauman's Social Thought

Abstract

This article seeks to explore some of the origins of Zygmunt Bauman's social thought. Using the metaphor of paths from a story by Borges, the article argues that Bauman's work follows paths which were opened up to him by Gramsci, Camus and Levinas. Bauman has acknowledged the importance of Gramsci and Levinas in his intellectual development and, therefore, the identification of a path leading from Camus is offered by way of circumstantial rather than direct evidence. The article discusses each of these thinkers in the context of Bauman's own themes and concerns and, in so doing, it is hoped to show that Bauman's work has long been marked by a consistence of ambition and foundational assumptions.

Hermeneutics contra fundamentalism: Zygmunt Bauman’s method for thinking in dark times

“…Since human action depends upon how individuals and groups interpret the conditions within which they find themselves, including their disagreements over those conditions and how they then decide to act, singularly or collectively, it is only through a hermeneutic approach that understanding can be revealed. Hermeneutics thus belongs to those schools of thought that emphasize our (re)creation of the social world through the realm of ideas, demonstrating the keen influence of both Gramsci and Lukács on Bauman's workas the late Keith Tester consistently argued (Bauman and Tester, 2001;Tester, 2002;)rather than our being conditioned and determined by that social world. Bauman (1978) offers four methodological insights for sociology through his encounters with the 'verstehen' tradition.…”

The perpetual becoming of humanity

“…Gramsci showed Bauman that there is no inevitability in history and that culture is decisive in historical processes (see Bauman, 2002). Humans, not economic developments, make history and ultimately bear responsibility for it (Tester, 2002). Important themes in Bauman’s oeuvre – such as intellectuals, culture and the critique of common sense – contain a distinct Gramscian influence.…”

Sixty-three years of thinking sociologically: Compiling the bibliography of Zygmunt Bauman

“… 4. See Mark Davis in this collection. Two nods must also be extended here to Keith Tester: for a discussion of Bauman’s work in terms of the ‘garden of forking paths’, see Tester (2002); and for the argument that the adversarial commentaries of recent years focus on the familiar paths of Bauman’s thought, and are considerably weakened as a result of doing so, see Tester (2018). …”