Liquid life

Author's name: Zygmunt Bauman Publisher: The Arab Network for Research and Publishing Year of publication: 2016 Literary classification: Social sciences Book overview: The book "Liquid Life" is an explanatory text that applies the overall framework of liquid modernity to what we experience in a time of liquidity in the daily and personal circle. Zygmunt Bauman details, in this book, the manifestations of modernity in our daily conditions, in our life choices… and in our feelings… and in our view of the crises we pass through. This book is about living in a modern liquid world, it is a book about the siege of the individual by all the conditions that wish him freedom… where meanings in the shadow of liquid life descend from their sublimity to dwell in the market circle and become commodities. Bauman then tells us that “individual achievements in the modern liquid society cannot gain the solidity of permanent things, because the advantage quickly turns into a flaw… and that past experiences cannot encompass the unexpected changes in circumstances… and that liquid life is a life fraught with risks, lived in a state of constant uncertainty.” Bauman's solution lies in strengthening social cohesion, creating social awareness, and setting goals for social responsibility; escaping isolation is only through reviving efforts to revive the public sphere, skills of interaction with others, discussion, mutual understanding, and dealing with inevitable conflicts in every shared life because they are the measure of humanity. He also warns of the necessity to seek meaning, then build solidarity and shared awareness as a condition for overcoming fear and lightness.