Zygmunt Bauman is one of the leading social and political thinkers of the modern world. He is a classic thinker in the sense that his books possess the two qualities laid out by the founding fathers of the social sciences - the moral basis and the artistic touch - but his greatest interest is in showing how personal troubles are inextricably connected to public issues. He turns his critical eye on just about any social issue, event or institution from shopping to the state and from sex to social inequality. To read Bauman is to see how the rhythms of everyday life may be turned into an...

Zygmunt Bauman is one of the leading social and political thinkers of the modern world. He is a classic thinker in the sense that his books possess the two qualities laid out by the founding fathers of the social sciences - the moral basis and the artistic touch - but his greatest interest is in showing how personal troubles are inextricably connected to public issues. He turns his critical eye on just about any social issue, event or institution from shopping to the state and from sex to social inequality. To read Bauman is to see how the rhythms of everyday life may be turned into an...