Böcker av Keith Tester

Keith Tester examines modernity through the prism of the two sovereigns - of the individual and the collectivity. It is a stimulating meditation on the difficult and contradictory experiences of European modernity.

This book stands as a testimony to Bauman's belief in the enduring relevance of sociology. But it is also a call to us all to start questioning the world in which we live and to transform ourselves from being the victims of circumstance into the makers of our own history. For that, at the end of the day, is the use of sociology.

Increasingly in the West, horror is experienced only through television and cinema screens. Tester looks at the moral possibilities and implications of this, and also addresses the pressing concern of whether or not this is a time of moral decay. He uses a wide range of literature to explore these questions and develops his account around debates raised by Arendt, Simmel, Riesman and Bauman.

This text offers an interpretation of contemporary cultural and social relationships. The author argues that we all try to make sense of our humanity by turning elsewhere: to inhuman things. It also encompasses sociological thinkers such as Heidegger, Arendt, Benjamin and Simmel.

This critical review of "postmodernity" argues that we are not living in the midst of a new "great transformation". Rather, the problems and possibilities of contemporary culture reflect the paradoxes and dreams of modernity.

Zygmunt Bauman is one of the leading figures in contemporary social thought. His work ranges across issues of ethics, culture and politics. It never forgets that social thought ought to help men and women make sense of their lives and aspire towards something different. His books and essays always focus on the here and now: violence and moral indifference, globalization, consumerism, politics and individualization. They cast a sharp eye on the panaceas of there is no alternative'; the embrace of community and the fads of the counselling boom'; through which men and women are told that they can achieve biographical solutions to what are, in fact, systemic problems. In this new book, Zygmunt Bauman and Keith Tester engage in five accessible conversations that uncover and explore the assumptions and commitments underpinning Bauman's ground-breaking social thought. The conversations show how those commitments have influenced Bauman's analyses of modernity, postmodernity and liquid modernity'. The book ranges widely, from autobiographical reflection through to pointers for the understanding and future of Bauman's social thought. The conversations illustrate the moral substance of Bauman's refusal to accept that the world cannot be made different. They show why social thought is a human necessity. Conversations with Zygmunt Bauman is a book which will offer fresh insight into Bauman's work for those who are familiar with it, and provide an engaging and helpful entry point for those who are new to it.

This book argues that study of the media can only be culturally valuable and morally worthwhile if the lessons taught by sociology are remembered.