Bauman's Challenge

This unique and original collection by a mix of internationally renowned and emerging scholars uses critical engagements with Zygmunt Bauman's sociology to identify and better understand those diverse challenges that face globalized human societies at the start of the twenty-first century, including the future of Europe, at a time when political power appears evermore fragmented; global social exclusion; ethics and morality in the face of epistemological and ontological uncertainty wrought by the challenge of relativism; the changing role of religion and theology in social life; the increasing bureaucratisation and micro--management of everyday life and the challenge this presents to genuine critical thinking; and, the enduring significance of sociology as a discipline that continues to address these challenges in evermore dynamic and insightful ways. Throughout each of the original contributions included here, contributors go beyond mere exegesis on Bauman and, instead, show the multifarious and manifest uses to which his work might be put, and the contemporary issues that it reveals. A concluding chapter by Bauman himself sets out 'the triple challenge' now facing humanity.