State of Fear in a Liquid World

Politics & Social Sciences

Bordoni, Carlo

Social Sciences

Routledge

The End of Equality

State of Crisis

Today we hear much talk of crisis and comparisons are often made with the Great Depression of the 1930s, but there is a crucial difference that sets our current malaise apart from the 1930s: today we no longer trust in the capacity of the state to resolve the crisis and to chart a new way forward. In our increasingly globalized world, states have been stripped of much of their power to shape the course of events. Many of our problems are globally produced but the volume of power at the disposal of individual nation-states is simply not sufficient to cope with the problems they face. This divorce between power and politics produces a new kind of paralysis. It undermines the political agency that is needed to tackle the crisis and it saps citizens’ belief that governments can deliver on their promises. The impotence of governments goes hand in hand with the growing cynicism and distrust of citizens. Hence the current crisis is at once a crisis of agency, a crisis of representative democracy and a crisis of the sovereignty of the state.  In this book the world-renowned sociologist Zygmunt Bauman and fellow traveller Carlo Bordoni explore the social and political dimensions of the current crisis. While this crisis has been greatly exacerbated by the turmoil following the financial crisis of 2007-8, Bauman and Bordoni argue that the crisis facing Western societies is rooted in a much more profound series of transformations that stretch back further in time and are producing long-lasting effects.  This highly original analysis of our current predicament by two of the world’s leading social thinkers will be of interest to a wide readership.

Bauman,Zygmunt

Sociology

Polity

In this book, world-renowned sociologists Zygmunt Bauman and Carlo Bordoni explore the social and political dimensions of the crisis. While many associate the crisis purely with the financial meltdown of 2007-8, they argue that the crisis is rooted in a profound series of transformations that stretch back further in time with long-lasting effects.

The economic crisis has brought social differences to the fore, reinventing the old question of inequality as democracy’s missed opportunity. Many have attempted to find a rational explanation of the problem, tracing it back to poor economic policy and reckless liberalisation of finance, or the crisis of banks and governments, as well as the collapse of family relationships. At the same time, globalisation has reduced the differences between some nations, bringing emerging countries to the level of the more advanced, but has dangerously increased internal inequalities. In this book, the author examines the question of inequality and the social problems it is creating in societies across the world, arguing that with the crisis of modernity, the ideal of equality appears to be over. As more and more of the world’s resources are concentrated in ever fewer hands, the promise of mass society as a means to grant equality and cancel the differences of classes appears to be giving way to a rising individualism. This book asks whether the apparent end of mass society will coincide with the end of equality and a re-evaluation of the worth of the individual. Are we heading towards a liquid world in which being equal is now considered less a virtue than a weakness?

The End of Equality (Routledge Focus)

This book examines the insecurity that besets our lives in the contemporary world, whether as a result of natural disasters, human negligence or, more recently, threats to security in the form of terrorist activity, which itself gives rise to new fears: fear of travel, agoraphobia, distrust of others and existential anxieties. Revealing the connection between the two components of our insecurity, as reflecting on and conditioning human existence, and producing social problems, the author brings this to bear on the notion of security that modernity had sought to guarantee to its citizens – a notion that has slowly crumbled with the crisis of modernity and with the emergence of the "liquid" world.  Now insecurity is endemic and has so firmly become part of us as to be accepted as an unpleasant aspect of normality that we must live with. However, the necessity of living in a risk society in which security has emerged as important does nothing to dispel the fear that accompanies us at all times. An engagement with the thought of Bauman that explores fear as an accompaniment to the end of modernity and its assurances, State of Fear in a Liquid World offers developments of the thesis of liquid modernity and will appeal to scholars and students of sociology, social theory and politics with interests in individualisation, social change and (in)security.

State of Fear in a Liquid World (Routledge Focus)

Hubris and Progress: A Future Born of Presumption (Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought)

This book explores the ancient question of why man seeks to go beyond his limits. A presumptuous tendency known by the ancient Greeks as hubris and believed to be punished by the gods, it developed from a need for our survival to a habit, as humanity has subdued animals, dominated nature, increased knowledge and sought even to overcome death. It also lies behind the crisis of our time, as the values of democracy, freedom, equality and progress have been weakened – sacrificed to excess, as we live in an eternal present, dominated by greed and indifference regarding the future. Addressing this crisis of our interregnum period, in which faith has been lost in the former certainties of modernity, such as science, progress and the idea of a better world, the author considers whether redemption for humanity might lie in our hubristic tendencies, as these give us scope to deviate from the existing path and find new ways forward.

This book explores the ancient question of why man seeks to go beyond his limits. A presumptuous tendency known by the ancient Greeks as hubris and believed to be punished by the gods, it developed from a need for our survival to a habit, as humanity has subdued animals, dominated nature, increased knowledge and sought even to overcome death. It also lies behind the crisis of our time, as the values of democracy, freedom, equality and progress have been weakened – sacrificed to excess, as we live in an eternal present, dominated by greed and indifference regarding the future. Addressing this crisis of our interregnum period, in which faith has been lost in the former certainties of modernity, such as science, progress and the idea of a better world, the author considers whether redemption for humanity might lie in our hubristic tendencies, as these give us scope to deviate from the existing path and find new ways forward.

Post Society

Our societies are in transition, spurred on by a pandemic that disrupted many aspects of the social world we once took for granted. We've left behind the 'solid modernity' of the twentieth century and even the 'liquid modernity' so brilliantly analysed by Zygmunt Bauman, but what kind of society is now taking shape around us? &nbsp;In this highly original reflection on the current state of our world, Carlo Bordoni argues that we are on the threshold of 'post-society', a condition in which social distancing becomes the norm, real social relations are diminishing in favour of those mediated by technology, existential loneliness is becoming widespread, and we find ourselves voluntarily submitting to new forms of surveillance and control in the hope of increasing our security. Emotions are increasingly assuming a central role in social life, not only because of the growing prevalence of social media, which provide platforms for the public expression of emotion, but also because emotions have been freed from the 'repression of emotionality' that had characterized modern society. While many of these developments are rooted in broader social transformations, they were all deepened and accelerated by the pandemic, which propelled us headlong into a brave new world where social relations are sustained without physical contact but with intense communication. This is the new post-social condition: more humanity, less sociality.

Review\n''Carlo Bordoni engages our emergent conditions and thereby makes visible a range of elements too easily overlooked. This is a must-read for those among us who experience a kind of discomfort with the standard definitions.'' 
Saskia Sassen, Columbia University\nOur societies are in transition, spurred on by a pandemic that disrupted many aspects of the social world we once took for granted. We’ve left behind the ‘solid modernity’ of the twentieth century and even the ‘liquid modernity’ so brilliantly analysed by Zygmunt Bauman, but what kind of society is now taking shape around us? 
In this highly original reflection on the current state of our world, Carlo Bordoni argues that we are on the threshold of ‘post-society’, a condition in which social distancing becomes the norm, real social relations are diminishing in favour of those mediated by technology, existential loneliness is becoming widespread, and we find ourselves voluntarily submitting to new forms of surveillance and control in the hope of increasing our security. Emotions are increasingly assuming a central role in social life, not only because of the growing prevalence of social media, which provide platforms for the public expression of emotion, but also because emotions have been freed from the ‘repression of emotionality’ that had characterized modern society. 
While many of these developments are rooted in broader social transformations, they were all deepened and accelerated by the pandemic, which propelled us headlong into a brave new world where social relations are sustained without physical contact but with intense communication. This is the new post-social condition: more humanity, less sociality.

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Books by Bordoni, Carlo

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bordoni, Carlo. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

State of Fear in a Liquid World

The End of Equality

State of Crisis

State of Crisis

The End of Equality (Routledge Focus)

State of Fear in a Liquid World (Routledge Focus)

Hubris and Progress: A Future Born of Presumption (Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought)

Hubris and Progress: A Future Born of Presumption (Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought)

Post Society

Post Society