Zygmunt Bauman was born in Poland in 1925 into a Jewish family. Fourteen years later he escaped with his family into the Soviet Union, when the Nazis invaded Poland, and then joined the Polish First Army – controlled at that time by the Soviets. Becoming a dedicated communist, he joined the KBW, a military internal security organization, and during this time he studied sociology at the Warsaw Academy of Social Sciences. When he was dismissed from the KBW, he completed his MA and became lecturer at the University of Warsaw. Bauman was driven out of Poland by an anti-Semitic campaign and has resided in London since 1971, where he accepted a chair of sociology at the University of Leeds in 1972, and remained there until 1990 when he retired, being awarded professor Emeritus. …show more content…
The main concept that is present throughout his works is that of 'liquid' modernity in contrast with the solid modernity. This period of transition from old to new is actually a rupture of the present with the past that is acquired through change. The excerpts discussed during the seminar from the book ‘Liquid Modernity’ issued in 2000, his speech given in 2003 and ‘Consuming Life’ issued in 2007 highlight several aspects of modernity and consumption. Whilst the solid modernity paints a society where its members are seen as producers with a life that tends to be normatively regulated, the liquid modernity regards a society with no norms, people being considered consumers guided by seduction, by higher and higher desires, and by volatile