Suffering in the Sociology of Zygmunt Bauman
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7146/qs.v6i1.124417Keywords:
Zygmunt Bauman, Sociology of suffering, Solid-modern suffering, Liquid-modern suffering, Solidarity, MoralityAbstract
The topic of human suffering loomed large throughout the writings of Zygmunt Bauman. If anything, his work can be characterized as a ‘sociology of suffering’. From the early writings until his very last, suffering constituted a key concern in Bauman’s description of the transformation of society from a solid-modern to a liquid-modern outlook. In his work, there are certain shifts in who and what he regards as the embodiments or expressions of suffering, and there is thus a keen eye on the changing landscape of suffering, its causes and consequences, from past to present. But there is nevertheless always a continuous and vehement defence for those living at the outskirts or at the bottom of society. The article will also explore what Bauman suggest should be done about the presence of suffering, and the article will briefly discuss the viability of his ideas on a morality of proximity as a way to alleviate suffering.
References
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Jacobsen, Michael Hviid and Sophia Marshman (2008): ‘The Four Faces of Human Suffering in the Sociology of Zygmunt Bauman – Continuity and Change’. Polish Sociological Review, 1 (161):3-24.
Kaulingfreks, Ruud (2005): ‘Are We All Good? Zygmunt Bauman’s Response to Hobbes’. The Sociological Review, 53 (1):30-45.
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Milgran, Stanley (1974): Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View. New York: Harper & Row.
Mills, C. Wright (1959): The Sociological Imagination. New York: Oxford University Press.
Permebrton, Simon (2016): Harmful Societies – Understanding Social Harm. Bristol: Policy Press.
Rattansi, Ali (2017): ‘Race, Imperialism and Gender in Zygmunt Bauman’s Sociology – Partial Absences, Serious Consequences’, in Michael Hviid Jacobsen (ed.): Beyond Bauman – Critical Engagements and Creative Excursions. London: Routledge, pp. 65-85.
Smith, Dennis (1998): ‘Zygmunt Bauman – How to Be a Successful Outsider’. Theory, Culture and Society, 15 (1):39-45.
Tester, Keith (2004): The Social Thought of Zygmunt Bauman. London: Palgrave/Macmillan.
Wilkinson, Iain (2004): ‘The Problem of ‘Social Suffering’: The Challenge to Social Science’. Health Sociology Review, 13 (2):113-121.
Wilkinson, Iain (2005): Suffering: A Sociological Introduction. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Wilkinson, Iain (2007): ‘On Bauman’s Sociology of Suffering: Questions for Thinking’, in An- thony Elliott (ed.): The Contemporary Bauman. London: Routledge, pp. 241-256.
Bauman, Zygmunt (1972): ‘Culture, Values and Science of Society’. University of Leeds Re- view, 15 (2):185-203.
Bauman, Zygmunt (1976a): Socialism – The Active Utopia. London: Hutchinson.
Bauman, Zygmunt (1976b): Towards a Critical Sociology – An Essay on Common Sense and Emancipation. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Bauman, Zygmunt (1978): Hermeneutics and Social Science – Approaches to Understanding. London: Hutchinson.
Bauman, Zygmunt (1982): Memories of Class: The Pre-History and After-Life of Class. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Bauman, Zygmunt (1987): Legislators and Interpreters – On Modernity, Post-Modernity and Intellectuals. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bauman, Zygmunt (1988): Freedom. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Bauman, Zygmunt (1989): Modernity and the Holocaust. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bauman, Zygmunt (1990): ‘From Pillars to Post’. Marxism Today, February, pp. 20-25.
Bauman, Zygmunt (1991a): Modernity and Ambivalence. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bauman, Zygmunt (1991b): ‘Postmodernity: Chance or Menace?’. Occasional Papers, 2. Cen- tre for the Study of Cultural Values, Lancaster University.
Bauman, Zygmunt (1992): Intimations of Postmodernity. London: Routledge.
Bauman, Zygmunt (1993): Postmodern Ethics. Oxford: Blackwell.
Bauman, Zygmunt (1995): Life in Fragments. Oxford: Blackwell.
Bauman, Zygmunt (1997a): Postmodernity and Its Discontents. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bauman, Zygmunt (1997b): ‘Morality Begins at Home – Or: Can There Be a Levinasian Macro- Ethics?’, in Harald Jodalen and Arne Johan Vetlesen (eds.): Closeness – An Ethics. Oslo: Scandinavian University Press, pp. 218-245.
Bauman, Zygmunt (1998a): Globalization – The Human Consequences. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bauman, Zygmunt (1998b): Work, Consumerism and the New Poor. Buckingham: Open Uni- versity Press.
Bauman, Zygmunt (1998c): ‘What Prospects of Morality in Times of Uncertainty?’. Theory, Culture and Society, 15 (1):11-22.
Bauman, Zygmunt (1999a): In Search of Politics. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bauman, Zygmunt (1999b): ‘The World Inhospitable to Levinas’. Philosophy Today, 43 (2):151-167.
Bauman, Zygmunt (2000a): Liquid Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bauman, Zygmunt (2000b): ‘Social Uses of Law and Order’. British Journal of Criminology, 40 (2):205-221.
Bauman, Zygmunt (2001a): The Individualized Society. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bauman, Zygmunt (2001b): Community – Seeking Safety in an Insecure World. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bauman, Zygmunt (2004): Wasted Lives: Modernity and its Outcasts. Oxford: Polity Press.
Bauman, Zygmunt (2007): Consuming Life. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bauman, Zygmunt (2011): Collateral Damage – Social Inequalities in a Global Age. Cam- bridge: Polity Press.
Bauman, Zygmunt (2013): Does the Richness of the Few Benefit Us All? Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bauman, Zygmunt (2016): Strangers at Our Doors. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bauman, Zygmunt and Keith Tester (2001): Conversations with Zygmunt Bauman. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bauman, Zygmunt and Leonidas Donskis (2013): Moral Blindness – The Loss of Sensitivity in Liquid Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Beilharz, Peter (2000): Zygmunt Bauman – Dialectic of Modernity. London: Sage Publications.
Beilharz, Peter (ed.) (2001): The Bauman Reader. Oxford: Blackwell.
Bericat, Eduardo (2016): ‘The Sociology of Emotions: Four Decades of Progress’. Current So- ciology, 64 (3):491-513.
Best, Shaun (2016): ‘Zygmunt Bauman: On What It Means to be Included’. Power & Educa- tion, 8 (2):124-139.
Boltanski, Luc (1999): Distant Suffering: Morality, Media and Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bourdieu, Pierre et al. (1999): The Weight of the World: Social Suffering in Contemporary So- ciety. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Bunting, Madeline (2003): ‘Zygmunt Bauman: Passion and Pessimism’. The Guardian, April 4:20-23.
Carleheden, Mikael (2008): ‘Bauman on Politics – Stillborn Democracy’, in Michael Hviid Jacobsen and Poul Poder (eds.): The Sociology of Zygmunt Bauman – Challenges and Critique. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing, pp. 175-192.
Giroux, Henry A. (2011): ‘Neoliberalism and the Death of the Social State: Remembering Wal- ter Benjamin’s Angel of History’. Social Identities, 17 (4):587-601.
Habermas, Jürgen (1984): The Theory of Communicative Action. Boston: Beacon Press.
Hochschild, Arlie R. (1990): ‘Ideology and Emotion Management: A Perspective and Path for Future Research’, in Theodore D. Kemper (ed.): Research Agendas in the Sociology of Emotions. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, pp. 117-142.
Jacobsen, Michael Hviid (2019): ‘Liquid-Modern Emotions: Exploring Zygmunt Bauman’s Contribution to the Sociology of Emotions’. Emotions and Society, 1 (1):99-116.
Jacobsen, Michael Hviid (2020): ‘Evil-by-Proxy and Everyday Monsters – Toward a Moral Sociology for Overcoming the Passive Observation of Evil’, in Caroline Joan S. Picart (ed.): Monsters, Law, Crime: Explorations in Gothic Criminology. Lanham, MD: Row- man & Littlefield, pp. 97-119.
Jacobsen, Michael Hviid and Sophia Marshman (2008): ‘The Four Faces of Human Suffering in the Sociology of Zygmunt Bauman – Continuity and Change’. Polish Sociological Review, 1 (161):3-24.
Kaulingfreks, Ruud (2005): ‘Are We All Good? Zygmunt Bauman’s Response to Hobbes’. The Sociological Review, 53 (1):30-45.
Kleinman, Arthus, Veena Das and Margaret Lock (1996): ‘Introduction’. Daedalus (Special Issue on Social Suffering), 125 (1):xi-xx.
Langer, Lawrence L. (1996): ‘The Alarmed Vision: Social Suffering and Holocaust Atrocity’. Daedalus (Special Issue on Social Suffering), 125 (1):47-65.
Milgran, Stanley (1974): Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View. New York: Harper & Row.
Mills, C. Wright (1959): The Sociological Imagination. New York: Oxford University Press.
Permebrton, Simon (2016): Harmful Societies – Understanding Social Harm. Bristol: Policy Press.
Rattansi, Ali (2017): ‘Race, Imperialism and Gender in Zygmunt Bauman’s Sociology – Partial Absences, Serious Consequences’, in Michael Hviid Jacobsen (ed.): Beyond Bauman – Critical Engagements and Creative Excursions. London: Routledge, pp. 65-85.
Smith, Dennis (1998): ‘Zygmunt Bauman – How to Be a Successful Outsider’. Theory, Culture and Society, 15 (1):39-45.
Tester, Keith (2004): The Social Thought of Zygmunt Bauman. London: Palgrave/Macmillan.
Wilkinson, Iain (2004): ‘The Problem of ‘Social Suffering’: The Challenge to Social Science’. Health Sociology Review, 13 (2):113-121.
Wilkinson, Iain (2005): Suffering: A Sociological Introduction. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Wilkinson, Iain (2007): ‘On Bauman’s Sociology of Suffering: Questions for Thinking’, in An- thony Elliott (ed.): The Contemporary Bauman. London: Routledge, pp. 241-256.
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Published
2021-01-21
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Jacobsen, M. H. (2021). Suffering in the Sociology of Zygmunt Bauman. Qualitative Studies, 6(1), 68–90. https://doi.org/10.7146/qs.v6i1.124417
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