Meander of life and work of Zygmunt Bauman

Abstract

Zygmunt Bauman — born in Poland, a well-known and at the same time a controversial
representative of social sciences. Professor in the field of sociology, also counted among
contemporary philosophers, creators of new paradigms and concepts of contemporary social
philosophy and cultural theory. As one of the most eminent and most frequently quoted Polish
sociologists and philosophers in the world, alongside Piotr Sztompka and Leszek Kołakowski,
he gained fame in particular as the creator of the concept of postmodernism (post-modernity),
liquid modernity (late modernity). The author in question belonged to a small group of Polish
intellectuals whose works were not only on the shelves of university libraries around the world,
but were also read with attention and commented. To the wider circle of readers he was known
as an essayist and promoter of new trends in social sciences. Criticism, however, often concerned
not so much his scientific output as political commitment, social and moral attitude. Until the
end of his life he struggled with very critical assessments of his activities during cooperation
with security services in the post-war years. On the other hand, his family, both in the interwar
period in Poland, during the Nazi occupation and after the war, and especially after 1968, was
exposed to numerous acts of persecution by anti-Semitic social and political circles. The article
discusses the meanders and controversies of life and work of Polish-Jewish representative of
social sciences and an active participant in social life in Poland and other countries where he
was a refugee or exile over the course of nearly a century at the turn of two turbulent centuries
in Europe and the world, as an insightful observer of social life, raised, living and struggling
with adversities at the crossroads of different cultures.