IDENTITY - Zygmunt Bauman

IDENTITY:

Zygmunt Bauman

Zygmunt Bauman is a Professor of Sociology originating from Poland regarded as one of the greatest interpreters of modern life. His primary focus is the idea of post-modern identity considering the shift in the social conditions that have characterised contemporary life; this shift from ‘modernity’ to ‘post-modernity’ saw a transition from a society of producers to a society of consumers consequently leading to liquid modernity. His writings interpret modern life, in reality, to be more concerned with transience over permanence; for example, the capitalist society we are bound within provides lots of options with little stability as we are blinded by the abundance of choices we face to shape our short term identity.

In Bauman's book, 'Identity' (2004), quoting Lars Dencik, he speaks of how our social affiliations (traditional definitions of identity such as race, gender, social class, family, country and place of birth) are losing importance, becoming diluted by a longing to experience belonging in new groups from which we can facilitate identity-making. Bauman explains that, today, these 'groups' are becoming increasingly virtual and electronically mediated. These 'virtual totalities', as Bauman coins them, are easy to enter and easy to abandon. He continues by withdrawing the virtual, liquid forms from the solid, genuine forms of togetherness that he believes to promise that comforting 'we feeling' we long for. 

Bauman states "we are losing the ability to enter into spontaneous interaction with real people" on the subject of virtual communities. He then quotes management theorist Charles Handy who believes that virtual communities are not a valid substitution for real, face-to-face interaction. He also believes that not only do they do not provide any substance for personal identity, they actually make it more difficult to come to to terms with one's self.