In this major work, Zygmunt Bauman seeks to classify the meanings of culture. He distinguishes between culture as a concept, culture as a structure and culture as praxis and analyzes the different ways in which culture has been used in each of these settings. For Bauman, culture is a living, changing aspect of human interaction which must be understood and studied as a universal of human life. At the heart of his approach is the proposition that culture is inherently ambivalent.
With a major new introduction to this new edition, this classic work emerges as a crucial link in the development of Bauman′s thought. By his own admission, it was the first of his books to grope towards a new kind of social theory, in contrast to the false certainties and gross theorems that dominated much of the post-war period. This is Bauman at his best, at his most subtle and his most searching.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Introduction
Culture as Concept
Culture as Structure
Culture as Praxis
Über den Autor
Zygmunt Bauman is Emeritus Professor of sociology at the Universities of Leeds and Warsaw