Palmer, J. orcid.org/0000-0003-3091-8763 (2023) Barbarism – The Active Dystopia. Studia Litteraria et Historica (11). ISSN 2299-7571
Abstract
In this article, I argue that dystopia also has an ambivalently “active” function in Bauman’s sociolo-gy. 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 sociolo-gy 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 Then, I develop a particular focus on an unpublished, though essential, typescript entitled “Is the Science of the Possible Possible?”, suggesting that it is usefully read in terms of the emphasis on possibility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 Mo-dernity 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.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | Copyright © 2023 Jack Palmer This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. |
Keywords: | Zygmunt Bauman; modernity; Holocaust; possibility; utopia; dystopia |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law (Leeds) > School of Sociology and Social Policy (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Leverhulme Trust Not Known |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 04 Jun 2025 14:37 |
Last Modified: | 04 Jun 2025 14:37 |
Published Version: | https://journals.ispan.edu.pl/index.php/slh/articl... |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Institute of Slavic Studies |
Identification Number: | 10.11649/slh.3125 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:227372 |