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Zygmunt Bauman and the WestA Sociology of Intellectual Exile |
eBook Available
The thought and career of a twentieth-century public intellectual in exile.
Zygmunt Bauman was both an outsider of Western modernity and one of its foremost interpreters. He was an exemplary figure in twentieth-century intellectual work on exile who experienced both Nazi and Soviet forms of totalitarianism.
The first work to draw extensively on Bauman’s personal archive, Zygmunt Bauman and the West argues that the distinctive social thought that sprang from Bauman’s lived experiences of exile amounts to a sustained, sophisticated, and hitherto unappreciated problematization of Eurocentrism and the West. Through an overview of the intellectual’s thought and his contribution to sociology, Jack Palmer explores Bauman’s experience and interpretation of the West and seeks to understand his work in a broader context, outside of the Eurocentric environment from which it was born.
Intervening in a resurgent sociology of intellectuals, Zygmunt Bauman and the West re-evaluates the place of the West in social and political thought.
The first work to draw extensively on Bauman’s personal archive, Zygmunt Bauman and the West argues that the distinctive social thought that sprang from Bauman’s lived experiences of exile amounts to a sustained, sophisticated, and hitherto unappreciated problematization of Eurocentrism and the West. Through an overview of the intellectual’s thought and his contribution to sociology, Jack Palmer explores Bauman’s experience and interpretation of the West and seeks to understand his work in a broader context, outside of the Eurocentric environment from which it was born.
Intervening in a resurgent sociology of intellectuals, Zygmunt Bauman and the West re-evaluates the place of the West in social and political thought.
Details
272 Pages, 6 x 9
ISBN 9780228017691
July 2023
Formats: Paperback, Cloth, eBook
“To my knowledge there is no other book on the market with a similar perspective on Bauman’s writings. I regard it as an absolute ‘must read’, for social theorists and students with an interest in the work of Bauman - not least because it provides a refreshing angle on Bauman’s work compared with the existing literature which tends to outline Bauman’s work in a rather chronological manner. Here we engage with a much more complex presentation of Bauman’s perspective.” Michael Hviid Jacobsen, Aalborg University
“This is a brilliant piece of work. It represents the first wave of a second generation engagement with Bauman, twenty years after the first monographs on his work were published. This gives it a fresh and lateral sensibility. You open the book and the conversation begins: brilliant. And it continues all the way through, without flagging.” Peter Beilharz, La Trobe University
“This is an immensely erudite and compellingly written book. Palmer convincingly shows how Bauman’s ambivalent positioning and intellectual engagement with respect to the West help account for the interpretation of non-Western historical experiences. Palmer’s reading against the grain is a highly original and inspiring account.” Manuela Boatcă, University of Freiburg and author of Global Inequalities beyond Occidentalism
“This superb book, by a leading expert on Bauman, is a major contribution to our understanding of his life and thought. Palmer’s detailed knowledge of the tragedies of colonialism and postcolonialism leads to a fundamental reconsideration of what is often dismissed as Bauman’s Eurocentrism. We encounter a rounded picture of a Bauman who is fully aware of these and other issues and wryly self-critical.” William Outhwaite, Newcastle University and co-editor of Habermas Global: The Reception History of a Work
“If [J.D.] Palmer’s goal was to decolonize Bauman, then he did so masterfully. What he gives us is a thought-provoking text that shows what we can do when we, instead of pigeon-holing thinkers, ideas, or texts into convenient boxes, take a legacy of important conversations and run with them.” Thesis 11
“Read Palmer and then (re)read Bauman not only to appreciate the sociology of sociology each offers but to appreciate what intellectual responsibility in this time might mean.” Social Forces
“This is a brilliant piece of work. It represents the first wave of a second generation engagement with Bauman, twenty years after the first monographs on his work were published. This gives it a fresh and lateral sensibility. You open the book and the conversation begins: brilliant. And it continues all the way through, without flagging.” Peter Beilharz, La Trobe University
“This is an immensely erudite and compellingly written book. Palmer convincingly shows how Bauman’s ambivalent positioning and intellectual engagement with respect to the West help account for the interpretation of non-Western historical experiences. Palmer’s reading against the grain is a highly original and inspiring account.” Manuela Boatcă, University of Freiburg and author of Global Inequalities beyond Occidentalism
“This superb book, by a leading expert on Bauman, is a major contribution to our understanding of his life and thought. Palmer’s detailed knowledge of the tragedies of colonialism and postcolonialism leads to a fundamental reconsideration of what is often dismissed as Bauman’s Eurocentrism. We encounter a rounded picture of a Bauman who is fully aware of these and other issues and wryly self-critical.” William Outhwaite, Newcastle University and co-editor of Habermas Global: The Reception History of a Work
“If [J.D.] Palmer’s goal was to decolonize Bauman, then he did so masterfully. What he gives us is a thought-provoking text that shows what we can do when we, instead of pigeon-holing thinkers, ideas, or texts into convenient boxes, take a legacy of important conversations and run with them.” Thesis 11
“Read Palmer and then (re)read Bauman not only to appreciate the sociology of sociology each offers but to appreciate what intellectual responsibility in this time might mean.” Social Forces
Jack Palmer is lecturer in sociology and social policy and director of the Bauman Institute at the University of Leeds.
Acknowledgments vii
Bibliographical Note xi
Introduction: Zygmunt Bauman and the West 3
1 The Exilic Position 28
2 Writing the Multiplicity of Modernity 60
3 Decolonizing Zygmunt Bauman? 82
4 Postmodernity as Jewish Experience and Interpretation 110
5 From Solid Communism to Liquid Post-Communism 139
Conclusion: Melancholic Hope 166
Notes 189
Index 253
Bibliographical Note xi
Introduction: Zygmunt Bauman and the West 3
1 The Exilic Position 28
2 Writing the Multiplicity of Modernity 60
3 Decolonizing Zygmunt Bauman? 82
4 Postmodernity as Jewish Experience and Interpretation 110
5 From Solid Communism to Liquid Post-Communism 139
Conclusion: Melancholic Hope 166
Notes 189
Index 253
Honourable Mention
Bronisław Malinowski Award in the Social Sciences
Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America
2024
Bronisław Malinowski Award in the Social Sciences
Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America
2024
