Provocative, prophetic, and polemical, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Leeds and the University of Warsaw, and acclaimed author, Zygmunt Bauman bemoans the dissipation of reliable societal structures and even individual frameworks of reference in an increasingly globalised world. Paradoxically, when a seamless movement of income, capital and labour was expected to bring about a much vaunted, touted, and hyped outcome of a boundaryless state of cohesive existence, communal bonds have been rend asunder and powers of welfare states stymied leading to a highly individualised and parlous state of affairs.
“Liquid Times,” according to Bauman is characterised by five seminal and influential changes that have sent the globe into a tailspin. A continuous flux towards modernity that does not allow any form of institutional stability or individual choices to settle down and set; An unavoidable separation of power and politics where the baton of influence passes from a politically established state/establishment to a politically uncontrolled global space. Such a loss of power – whether voluntary or inevitable, leads to the political authorities ‘subsidiarize’/’contract out’ a substantial volume of the functions which originally formed part of their own bastion; Reluctance of the state to step in to protect the individuals against the onslaught of the vagaries of an eccentric global marketplace. Viewing societies more as ‘networks’ rather than ‘structures’ means that individuals are divorced from the protective net once viewed as perpetual, and provided by the state, and thus left to defend their fate in their individual capacities; the fourth change, which in a way is a direct outcome of its immediately preceding third change, is a complete collapse of long-term thinking, planning and acting. Finally, the designation of the individual as a ‘free chooser’ and hence responsible for all consequences – intended and unintended – of such choices completes the firm and uncontested ‘arriviste’ of Liquid Times.
After identifying the five forces of change, Bauman proceeds to highlight the imperiled state of humanity’s affairs as It tries to come to grips with the gale force impacts caused by such changes.
Rapid and rampant urbanization, coupled with the creation of a new “underclass” means that cities are now associated more with danger than with safety. Modern cities are segregated into upper and lower tiers of inhabitants. The upper tier boasts of the high and mighty who construct ‘voluntary ghettos’ for themselves, that are fenced out from the lower tier ghettos. For the upper tier insiders, the lower tier spaces are where they won’t go. Similarly for the insiders of the lower tier ghettos, their own dwelling places are those from which they are not allowed to get out of.
The architectural/urbanistic critic Steven Flusty also contends that modern Urbanisation results in novel products such as “interdictory spaces’ – spaces that are ‘designed to intercept, repel, or filter the would-be users. The main objective of such spaces is to ‘divide, segregate and exclude – not to build bridges, easy passages and meeting places…” Hence gated communities with their own ‘jittery spaces’ (space in which there cannot be free movement of outsiders due to active monitoring), and ‘prickly spaces’ (space which cannot be freely enjoyed due to the presence of objects such as wall mounted sprinklers that douse loiterers) etc.
Employing a dazzling array of neologisms, Bauman also highlights the plight of asylum seekers and refugees, who in his words are stateless, helpless, and hapless ‘human surpluses’ spat out by the remorseless advance of liquid times. Their own country does not need them and the nation to which they turn to, to seek refuge does not want them. However, while talking about refugees and immigration, Bauman does not seem to acknowledge that there are two sides to a coin. He comes across as wielding the Human Rights megaphone, employing flamboyance and flair in terms of language, to the unfortunate exclusion of reality and practical predicaments. Bauman, however, makes some evocative observations on the state of some of the current refugee camps. Inhabitants of such camps are in a perennial state of transience as they have no clue when their refugee status will end. Ghostlike and waiflike they are children of the ‘nowhere land of non-humanity.’
Drawing on the work of Michael Agier, Professor of Anthropology and Director for the Centre of African Studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, Bauman asserts that these refugees find themselves in a continual state of ‘liminal drift’ with no awareness of whether such a drift is temporary or permanent. Bauman also liberally takes recourse to a dazzling array of terminologies coined by various authors to describe the transitory space occupied by the refugees/asylum seekers. They are Marc Augé’s ‘non-lieux,’ Joel Garreau’s ‘nowherevilles,’ and Michel Foucault’s ‘Narrenschiffen.’
Bauman desists from offering any ‘solutions’ to the perniciousness of Liquid Times. He ends his work on a sombre note by pointing out how the players in the modern world, continue with their activities, wearing an ‘Utopian’ mindset. Living in the present moment of madness and profligacy, they are unwilling to acknowledge that Utopia too has an end, Staying deliberately oblivious to such an inevitability, the elitists of our Liquid Times act out their pretentious roles of invincibility, don their cloaks of impermeability and getting on with their lives of incongruity. A continuous cycle of vice and vicissitude.
Overall, Liquid Times is one of those books where the insight to word ratio is at its optimal. This slim book of 110 pages packs more punch than could be found in many a tome. You may or may not agree with Bauman’s contentions (as I personally have some reservations on the chapter holding eloquent over the treatment or mistreatment of human surpluses), but you cannot help getting involved or provoked even! Which I think is the hallmark of a compelling and arresting author.