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Sociology 3160 Contemporary Social Theory
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Week One: CooleyWeek Two: Bauman January 19th 2021
Solidity and Liquidity are the distinctive features of two eras:
- Modernity and postmodernity, which becomes liquid modernity as it relates to contemporary
existence
- For example, gender identity is a product of the attempt at solidity we have
- Change is a fact within society, the difference between then and now is the rate which we
experience change
- Forms of modern life may differ but what unites them all is their fragility, temporariness,
vulnerability, and inclination to constant change
- Being modern means we are forever becoming and evolving, we are always seeking something
new
- What we were trying to control before vs what we control now is quite different
Bauman called us the fluid
- The fluids flow, spill, run out, splash, pour over, etc and are not easily stopped
- The extraordinary mobility of fluids is what associates them with the idea of ‘lightness’
- This is human society and human beings today
- Bauman says being individuals in liquid society doesn’t just mean being consumers, but also
being competitive goods in global markets, we are the goods
- We modify our bodies, and modify our bodies to be ex: gene manipulation to avoid certain
conditions, tattoos, plastic surgery, designed embryos
- In the age of technology, our identities are important
- Bauman says what's happening is like a social design, he talks about how we are increasingly
trying to make ourselves suitable for the global which won’t be satisfied forever with things like
plastic surgeries
- It’s important for us to change ourselves constantly, we always have to shape the visible self
*mandatory in liquid modernity
Ordinary conditions of our lives are seen as interruption, incoherence, surprise, and we crave
distractedness and incoherence because we cannot bear anything that lasts since we are constantly
changing
- Can the human mind master what the human mind has made?
- Individual must act and plan actions and losses/gains that come with
Critics of Bauman
- Liquid modernity has punctuated the crisis between the 20-21st century
- Puts a spotlight on this transition, from solid to liquid
- Bauman draws attention to our changed individual life pursuits
- What critics say is the roots of this crisis can be traced back to the ideologies that happened in the
19th century that mark big economic change
, - The transition from material to immaterial work, waves of real transitions that came with huge
consequences that were visible to the world (marxist in Baumans work)
- Material work: building, situated factories
- Ex: Local businesses caused to close, but big corporations are encouraged to stay open
New technologies determine the prevalence of immaterial labour, together with development of
communications at a worldwide level
- Technologies replacing hands on work
- How we communicate, and with whom we communicate, the speed we communicate is changing
- Puts a generation gap between people who are used to in-person communication
- We can’t separate the economy (base) and everything else (super-structure)
What are the consequences?
- Long-term life plans don’t matter as much, diff ways to organize our lives which may not be
easily communicated with older generations
- Contemporary people have short-term projects and not so many long-term
Bauman says when life is characterized by not maintaining a certain direction, this causes life to be
constantly defined by instability and uncertainty
- Instant gratification and nothing ever lasts
- Ex: phones, technology, disposable clothing that doesn’t last long
- Living in a liquid modernity you need to always be ready for an explosion to happen, but unsure
of when and where
- We need to acquire a new set of skills for today, in a society as liquid as ours being able to adapt
involves a lot of money, skill, and is consumerism at its best
Post-modernity is not a term for Bauman, uses liquid modernity instead
- Change is the only permanence, and uncertainty the only certainty
- Bauman is trying to see what the fundamental differences are
- Factive change was there in modern period, but there is now this complete absence of structure
We live with ever fewer stable points of reference
- We are always changing and evolving
- Emotional labour is involved, it’s exhausting and takes a lot of energy (some more than others,
depends how marginalized you are)
- Bauman believes we will always live with contradictions, and in a world with no stable guidelines
we need to find the morality within ourselves and when face to face with another person we have
to listen to the morality within and negotiate
Bauman believes modernity dominates time and space
- Liquid modernity is marked by time/space distanciation
- Because of the globalization of society the concepts of time and space have changed
fundamentally, there’s no distance between them, time is instant and space can be everywhere
, Midterm information (Week 3: Guest Lecture) January 26th
- Examples from text
- Midterm structure: 2 essay questions
- first including: self-sentiment and reflection (Horton), second being light and liquid, third
being forms of capital, and finally lastly walking in the city
- Essay #2: has four pieces, ideology of cure, violence of cure, access intimacy, crip manifesto
- How do these articles treat the issue of dependance/interdependence in light of disability?
- Idea of independence is held up under capitalism/ableism as a goal/ideal
- We don’t want to be frail, or dependant on people
- Length of essay doesn’t answer
- No format, but put in brackets the page number or the last name of the article
Presentation & Essay Topics
Week 4: Eli Clare Ideology of Cure February 2nd
- Claire is talking about how the ideology of cure runs through our society so densely that we don’t
even question it
Inspiration porn
- How ‘feel good’ imagery demeans the disabled community and perpetuates harmful stereotypes
- We see the objectification of people for the benefits of others
- Not everyone wants to be a perfect cookie cutter type of person, the world needs to change to
accept human diversity
It's not about getting a better attitude
- It’s about making the world accessible for everyone (braille books, access ramps, etc)
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