Liquid Times: Living in an Age of Uncertainty

The passage from solid to liquid modernity has created a new and unprecedented setting for individual life pursuits confronting individuals with a series of challenges never before encountered Social forms and institutions no longer have enough time to solidify and cannot serve as frames of reference for human actions and long term life plans so individuals have to find other ways to organise their lives They have to splice together an unending series of short term projects and episodes that don t add up to the kind of sequence to which concepts like career and progress could meaningfully be applied Such fragmented lives require individuals to be flexible and adaptable to be constantly ready and willing to change tactics at short notice to abandon commitments and loyalties without regret and to pursue opportunities according to their current availability In liquid modernity the individual must act plan actions and calculate the likely gains and losses of acting or failing to act under conditions of endemic uncertainty Zygmunt Bauman s brilliant writings on liquid modernity have altered the way we think about the contemporary world In this short book he explores the sources of the endemic uncertainty which shapes our lives today and in so doing he provides the reader with a brief and accessible introduction to his highly original account developed at greater length in his previous books of life in our liquid modern times The passage from solid to liquid modernity has created a newand unprecedented setting for individual life pursuits confrontingindividuals with a series of challenges never before encountered Social forms and institutions no longer have enough time tosolidify and cannot serve as frames of reference for human actionsand long term life plans so individuals have to find other ways toorganise their lives They have to splice together an unendingseries of short term projects and episodes that dont add up to thekind of sequenc