News : Page 2 : The Bauman Institute for Critical Sociology

A tribute to Professor Zygmunt Bauman, 1925 – 2017

Professor Zygmunt Bauman, celebrated as one of the greatest social thinkers of our times, passed away on Monday 9th January 2017 at home in Leeds. He was 91. Professor Bauman was head of the sociology department at the University of Leeds until his retirement in 1990. The Bauman Institute was founded in 2010 in his…

Anticipating Futures in a Complex World: An interdisciplinary seminar series

The Bauman Institute is co-hosting, with the Sustainability Research Institute (School of Earth & Environment), an exciting new seminar series “Anticipating Futures in a Complex World”. This series is jointly funded by the Bauman Institute, Sustainability Research Institute and the Leeds Social Sciences Institute (LSSI). About the series In an era of seemingly perpetual crisis,…

The Social Impact of Local Energy Developments: Our research on Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay

The tidal power scheme proposed for Swansea Bay (Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay) has been in the news today due to the government’s announcement that it is discussing subsidising the ambitious £1bn project. Our research has used the tidal lagoon as a case study for exploring the social and economic impact of local energy infrastructure, and the role of local communities in energy developments.

PRISM, identity and control through data

The media has, wittingly or not, individualized the NSA/PRISM story by focusing on the ridiculous question of whether the whistle blower is a hero or traitor and conducting a farcical “Great Snowden Hunt”.

Some notes on Zygmunt Bauman’s lecture, ‘What makes a hero?’

Notes on a lecture given by Zygmunt Bauman at the Howard Assembly Rooms, which provided an opportunity to hear him speak on a topic which seldom makes its way into the critical commentaries: heroism.

Zygmunt Bauman delivers the Ernest Jones Lecture 2012: Culture, Identity and Liquid Modernity

In his lecture Professor Zygmunt Bauman will reconsider man’s relationship with his world from the perspective of the stage for which he uses the term ‘liquid modernity’.

Democratic finance… from liquidity crisis to liquid money

Abundance Generation, the product of three years hard work, including many weeks ‘deep hanging out’ with people across the UK, is finally ‘launched’. Abundance has tried to shift the focus of investment from the 1% (who frankly have enough) to the 99% who are short of meaningful choices of things to do with their money…

Where are the fresh voices? They are out there in abundance.

A response by Mark Davis to Aditya Chakrabortty’s thought-provoking article in The Guardian – Economics has failed us: but where are the fresh voices?

We get the budgets we deserve?

New post on Res Publica blog on how the budget reflects the last gasps of economics as politics in disguise and the need for new sources of knowledge and understanding about the meaning of money… step forward the sociology and anthropology! http://respublica.org.uk/item/We-get-the-budgets-we-deserve

All that is solid melts into air?

Having been the inspiration for www.zopa.com, Liquid Modernity can now claim a new offspring – www.abundancegeneration.com Abundance hopes to disrupt the conventions of money and financial services which deliberately alienate and disorientate the individual by allowing ordinary people to earn cash by investing directly in renewable energy production. The minimum investment is £5 which makes…