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Review Essay Liquid Modernity

Bauman on Contemporary Welfare Society

Peter Abrahamson

University of Copenhagen, Peter.Abrahamson{at}sociology.ku.dk

In the sociology of Zygmunt Bauman, contemporary society, labelled consumer society by Bauman, is viewed as liquid modernity, which underlines mobility as indicative of our time. Globalization encapsulates the increasing mobility of capital and social elites; Bauman stresses that the present consumer society is stratified, and for the poor mobility is not an easy option. Spatial differentiation goes hand in hand with social differentiation. Increasingly, the affluent segments isolate themselves in voluntary ghettos such as gated communities, while the poor are relegated to the enforced ghetto, where they are labelled an underclass and viewed as useless and unwanted. Bauman demonstrates the development in North America as indicative of the situation elsewhere, but suggests an alternative to neo-liberal welfare state dismantling: namely the introduction of a basic income and substitution of the work ethic by an ethic of craftsmanship.

Key Words: postmodernity • poverty • social policy • space • welfare state

Acta Sociologica, Vol. 47, No. 2, 171-179 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/0001699304043854
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