The Routledge International Handbook on Zygmunt Bauman

The Routledge International Handbook on Zygmunt Bauman is a major, state‑of‑the‑art collection dedicated to the work and ideas of one of the most renowned intellectuals of the 20th and the 21st centuries.

Bringing together eminent scholars in social sciences and humanities from all over the world, it presents and engages with the most important characteristics of Bauman’s work and life, the key themes of his oeuvre, the relationship between his ideas and intellectuals’ innovations in social sciences and humanities, as well as the application of his work to the analyses of the most pressing contemporary challenges. This volume draws inspiration from significant advances in the understanding of Bauman’s biography and the development of his personal archive, as well as the ongoing project of translating Bauman’s Polish‑language works into English. The handbook, moreover, is significantly international in scope, reflecting Bauman’s status as a global social thinker. The book critically interrogates the reception of Bauman’s ideas, including in regions which have been marginalised in Bauman studies. It will also foreground contemporary developments in the literature on Zygmunt Bauman and showcases the work of an emerging new generation of Bauman scholars who are engaging with and extending Bauman’s work in novel directions.

This important new volume will appeal to a new generation of readers who might find in Bauman a means of orienting themselves in the urgencies of the present conjuncture: climate change, digital society, economic crisis, intensification of migration flows, and more. It will therefore appeal to a wide international readership, including scholars and students of sociology, philosophy, and cultural studies, as well as historians, and literary and art scholars, and contemporary humanities and social sciences more broadly.