Turning the familiar into the unfamiliar

Making the Familiar Unfamiliar

“The old ways of doing things are no longer working, and new ways haven’t been invented. That’s where we are today.”
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◎ Won the 2023 One-Way Street Literature Award, the 2023 New Weekly Blade Book, the 2023 Beijing News Good Books·Social Science and Economics, the 2023 Interface News Recommendation, the 2023 Phoenix Reading Good Books (68 books), the 2023 China Reading News Academic·New Knowledge Good Books, the 2023 Duozhaoyu Good Books, the 2023 Ten Points Reading Selection, and the 2023 Humanities and Social Sciences Joint Book List Good Books ◎ Author of "Work, Consumerism and the New Poor", Bauman's last interview before his death.
◎ A highly influential contemporary sociologist × a well-known and sharp journalist, an intellectual confrontation, a thought-provoking book dedicated to our generation.
◎ A wise survival guide written for contemporary people: about the situation of people today and about our current life.
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【Editor's Recommendation】
A brilliant and witty "world-class podcast," the final conversation with Bauman, "the greatest sociologist writing in English today." A collision of ideas, a meeting of equals, depicting the human condition from different perspectives: the instability of the new middle class, the internet stratosphere...
※ Chat about all aspects of today's life: work, love, family, identity, power, present and future... Record important events from 1933 to 2016, "World War II", "economic crisis", "digital age", "new poor"... From the dual perspectives of a calm outsider and a passionate participant, gain insight into this fluid and changing world.
A short book, a precious conversation about Bauman's life's work. From military major to university professor, from practitioner to thinker, Bauman never stopped thinking. He does not directly offer solutions, but encourages us to better understand the facts and truths that have happened, are happening, and will happen.
A biting sense of humor, an epic worldview, a rare gift for transforming gloom into light—always lively and perceptive, always hopeful, a pessimistic optimist—this is the strength Bauman conveys through his writing. "Even if I knew the world would end tomorrow, I would still plant my apple trees."
※ Kafka, Freud, Lem, Kundera, and Eco all appeared in the conversation——————————
【Content Introduction】
Why are we losing the ability to love? Why are our desires never satisfied after a frenzy of consumption? Why does everyone become everyone else's enemy?
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Before his death, Zygmunt Bauman spent several days in conversation with Swiss journalist Peter Haffner, having four long conversations about his life's work at his home in Leeds, England.
In this conversation, he continues to describe our era in terms of "liquid modernity," touching on every aspect of contemporary life: love and intimacy, identity, work and leisure, family, Jewishness, morality, happiness, society, religion, and politics. From economic crisis to the new poor, from social responsibility to civil rights, from the shadow of war to daily happiness, from iconic writers to personality types... He offers in-depth reflections on these topics, offering a new understanding of our situation for a generation suspended in insecurity, and transforming the way we think about the modern world.
This final conversation gave us a new understanding of Bauman, one of the greatest sociologists and thinkers of the 21st century: he never shied away from the major issues of our time, always striving to question accepted wisdom and common sense, and to make the familiar unfamiliar.
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【Recommended by media and scholars】
Bauman has used extraordinary talent and creativity to establish a position that anyone must take seriously. - Sociologist Giddens If Bauman had lived long enough to continue his conversation with the Swiss journalist, making the familiar strange, this might have been the beginning of the world's greatest podcast. - Shepherd Express

2023-08-06

南京大学出版社

Nanjing University Press·Watchman

260

9787305269387