Insecurities, uncertainties and the post-modern disappointment: the state of crisis in the last texts by Zygmunt Bauman

Abstract

The contemporary social reality is markedly associated with circumstances that generate a "permanent state of crisis". Zygmunt Bauman stood out for the attention devoted to understand the status of crisis in liquid modernity era. This essay sheds light on two of his latest works, namely State of Crisis and Strangers on our doorstep. The arguments and ideas highlighted in the discussion represent possibilities for interdisciplinary approaches that intervene in the human condition and current social practices. In this sense, the loss of State agency power, the diffusion of risks and vulnerabilities, as well as the behavior of estrangement and distrust of otherness, are issues debated in the light of other works by the author and in dialogue with recent contributions of social theory. It concludes by indicating the indissoluble character of the crisis in postmodernity as a source of tension that articulates uncertainties, insecurities and vulnerabilities, stressing individualism and hostility in certain contexts, nevertheless social self-criticism is a possible way to avoid these problems.