Suchergebnisse

Zygmunt Bauman was both an outsider of Western modernity and one of its foremost interpreters. Zygmunt Bauman and the West argues that the distinctive social thought that sprung from Bauman's lived experiences of totalitarianism and exile amounts to a sustained, sophisticated, and unappreciated problematisation of Eurocentrism and the West.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Table of Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Social theory, area studies and historical sociology: a hermeneutic approach -- Structure of the book -- Notes -- PART I: Modernity, colonialism, genocide -- 1. Genocide and colonialism -- Genocide -- Colonialism -- Genocide and colonialism -- Notes -- 2. Theorising the multiplicity of modernity -- Modern society and Eurocentrism -- Modernity as a condition -- Multiple modernities -- Entangled historical routes to and through modernity -- Notes -- PART II: Entangled routes to and through modernity -- 3. Precolonial Burundi and Rwanda: A historical survey -- The Great Lakes region -- Rwanda -- Burundi -- Intermediate reflections -- Notes -- 4. The colonial entanglement, 1905-1945: The racialisation of tradition -- Theorising the colonial state -- The Hamitic hypothesis and European exploration -- Situating colonial rule -- The colonial reconstruction -- Intermediate reflections -- Notes -- 5. Trajectories towards independence, 1945-1965: Multiple 'societal self-understandings' -- Multiplicity, elites and societal self-understandings -- Situating Burundi and Rwanda in transformations of the geo-historical entanglements of modernity -- Disentangling trajectories towards independence -- Intermediate reflections -- Notes -- 6. Postcolonial crisis and genocide, 1965-1994: Traumas of modernity -- The modernity of genocide -- Disentangling the 'manifold interlockings' of post-independence violence -- Intermediate reflections -- Notes -- Conclusion -- Index

Abstract
Reflecting on the author's role in establishing, cataloging, and interpreting the personal papers of Zygmunt Bauman, this article ponders central questions related to working on and with the archives of public intellectuals. It addresses the role that intellectuals, and Bauman in particular, hold in contemporary "memory wars" and the role that diverse forms and practices of archives play therein. It considers the difficulties posed by and possibilities afforded by the existence of archives, as well as biographical and autobiographical writings, for the interpretation of theoretical work. To this end, the article deploys a number of keywords—estrangement, loss, silence, secrets—that have framed the author's encounter with the Bauman archive.

This is a retracted article, whose corrected version, bearing the same title, is avalaible under the DOI: https://doi.org/10.11649/slh.3125. The article was corrected on request of the author, who noted that some of his corrections had not been introduced in the text. The publisher sincerely apologises for the oversight. In this article, I argue that dystopia also has an ambivalently "active" function in Bauman's sociology. Across his work, as a counter-image to the "active utopia" of socialism, the traces of the "active dystopia" can be tracked, defined as a pointed elucidation of the possibilities for barbarism latent within the present, the clearest expression of which is presented in Modernity and the Holocaust (1989). The article proceeds roughly in three steps. Firstly, I revisit the arguments in Bauman's foundational cultural and critical sociology that developed alongside his revisionist reading of Marxism in the 1960s and 1970s, on epistemologies of the future, common sense and the limitations of the predictive ambitions of social science. Then, I develop a particular focus on an unpublished, though essential, typescript entitled "Is the Science of the Possible Possible?", suggesting that it is usefully read in terms of the emphasis on possibility and potentiality in Modernity and the Holocaust. Throughout these sections, I intersperse a reading of Modernity and the Holocaust in the light of this foundational work, presenting it as an exemplary form of critical sociology as active dystopia, which elucidates the possibility for barbarism residing within modern societies. Finally, I consider how his thinking situates him in a lineage of critical thought animated by the "active dystopia", arguing that what is often mistaken for gloominess and pessimism is, in fact, a crucial resource for sociology in its speculative imagination of possible futures.

This is the corrected version of the retracted article under the same title, which was published with the following DOI: https://doi.org/10.11649/slh.2817. In this article, I argue that dystopia also has an ambivalently "active" function in Bauman's sociology. Across his work, as a counter-image to the "active utopia" of socialism, the traces of the "active dystopia" can be tracked, defined as a pointed elucidation of the possibilities for barbarism latent within the present, the clearest expression of which is presented in Modernity and the Holocaust (1989). The article proceeds roughly in three steps. Firstly, I revisit the arguments in Bauman's foundational cultural and critical sociology that developed alongside his revisionist reading of Marxism in the 1960s and 1970s, on epistemologies of the future, common sense and the limitations of the predictive ambitions of social science. Then, I develop a particular focus on an unpublished, though essential, typescript entitled "Is the Science of the Possible Possible?", suggesting that it is usefully read in terms of the emphasis on possibility and potentiality in Modernity and the Holocaust. Throughout these sections, I intersperse a reading of Modernity and the Holocaust in the light of this foundational work, presenting it as an exemplary form of critical sociology as active dystopia, which elucidates the possibility for barbarism residing within modern societies. Finally, I consider how his thinking situates him in a lineage of critical thought animated by the "active dystopia", arguing that what is often mistaken for gloominess and pessimism is, in fact, a crucial resource for sociology in its speculative imagination of possible futures.

This article elucidates some connections and divergences between S.N. Eisenstadt's work on multiple modernities and critical reflections on 'African modernity' presented by Africanist scholars. It argues that there is more cross-over between these discussions than is commonly thought when both are seen as parallel responses to the shortcomings of post-war modernization theory. Eisenstadt's work can inform debates in African Studies concerning the effective power of tradition in postcolonial African societies, and on African interpretations of the 'cultural programme' of modernity. The article also discusses some weaknesses in Eisenstadt's theorizing which arise from an extension of the multiple modernities framework to African societies, namely, an underappreciation of the various modalities of colonial imperialism and racialization, as well as the institutional constraints placed on postcolonial societal elites. It claims that these can be offset via a dialogue with the work of scholars in African Studies. Moreover, it is argued that the paradigm of multiple modernities can more satisfactorily shed light on African trajectories of modernity via the retrieval of tenets of Eisenstadt's 'heterodox' modernization theory and work on post-traditionality, outlined in the 1960s and the 1970s, which include specific reflections on African societies.

This book offers a novel sociological examination of the historical trajectories of Burundi and Rwanda. It challenges both the Eurocentric assumptions which have underpinned many sociological theorisations of modernity, and the notion that the processes of modernisation move gradually, if precariously, towards more peaceable forms of cohabitation within and between societies. Addressing these themes at critical historical junctures - precolonial, colonial and postcolonial - the book argues that the recent experiences of extremely violent social conflict in Burundi and Rwanda cannot be seen as an 'object apart' from the concerns of sociologists, as it is commonly presented. Instead, these experiences are situated within a specific route to and through modernity, one 'entangled' with Western modernity. A contribution to an emerging global historical sociology, Entanglements of Modernity, Colonialism and Genocide will appeal to scholars of sociology and social theory with interests in postcolonialism, historical sociology, multiple modernities and genocide.

Introduction -- Genocide and colonialism -- Theorising the multiplicity of modernity: entangled historical routes to and through modernity -- Precolonial Burundi and Rwanda: a historical survey -- The colonial entanglement, 1905-1945: the racialisation of tradition -- Trajectories towards independence, 1945-1965: multiple societal self-understandings -- Postcolonial crisis and genocide, 1965-1994: traumas of modernity -- Conclusion

Cover -- Half Title -- Series -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Notes on contributors -- Acknowledgements -- Editors' introduction: through the window again: revisiting Modernity and the Holocaust -- Part 1 Sociology after Modernity and the Holocaust -- 1 Modernity or decivilisation? Reflections on Modernity and the Holocaust Today -- 2 The sociology of modernity, the ethnography of the Holocaust: what Zygmunt Bauman knew -- Part 2 Rationality, obedience, agency -- 3 From understanding victims to victims' understanding: rationality, shame and other emotions in Modernity and the Holocaust -- 4 Warsaw Jews in the face of the Holocaust: 'trajectory' as the key concept in understanding victims' behaviour -- 5 Visual representations of modernity in documents from the Łódź Ghetto -- Part 3 Extensions and reevaluations -- 6 Reassessing Modernity and the Holocaust in the light of genocide in Bosnia -- 7 The Rwandan genocide and the multiplicity of modernity -- Part 4 'That world that was not his' - on Janina Bauman -- 8 Janina Bauman: to remain human in inhuman conditions -- 9 Janina and Zygmunt Bauman: a case study of inspiring collaboration -- 10 Reading Modernity and the Holocaust with and against Winter in the Morning -- Part 5 The legacies of Modernity and the Holocaust -- 11 Bauman, the Frankfurt School, and the tradition of enlightened catastrophism -- 12 Modernity and the Holocaust and the concentrationary universe -- Off-the-scene: an afterword -- Index.

Editors introduction : through the window again : revisiting modernity and the Holocaust / Jack Palmer & Dariusz Brzeziński -- Modernity or decivilization? Bauman's thesis after 30 years / Larry Ray -- The sociology of modernity, the ethnography of the Holocaust : what Zygmunt Bauman knew / Joanna Tokarska-Bakir -- From understanding victims to victims' understanding : rationality, shame and other emotions in modernity and the Holocaust / Dominic Williams -- Warsaw Jews in the face of the Holocaust : 'trajectory' as the key concept in understanding victims' behaviour / Maria Ferenc -- Visual representations of modernity in documents from the Łódź Ghetto / Paweł Michna -- Reassessing modernity and the Holocaust in the light of genocide in Bosnia / Arne Johan Vetlesen -- The Rwandan genocide and the multiplicity of modernity / Jack Palmer -- Janina Bauman : to remain human in inhuman conditions / Lydia Bauman -- Janina and Zygmunt Bauman : a case study of inspiring collaboration / Izabela Wagner -- Reading modernity and the Holocaust with and against winter in the morning / Griselda Pollock -- Bauman, the Frankfurt School, and the tradition of enlightened catastrophism / Jonathon Catlin -- Modernity and the Holocaust and the concentrationary universe / Max Silverman -- Off-the-scene : an afterword / Bryan Cheyette.