It is the term coined by the Polish philosopher Zygmunt Bauman to define today's society. It analyzes and defines the fast and fluid relationships and behaviors of the contemporary world, impacted by globalized capitalism.
Liquid modernity and postmodernity
It is questioned whether the term liquid modernity comes from the same meaning as postmodernity. However, Bauman abandons post-modernity terminology, which, according to him, has ceased to be an understanding and has become a great current of thought, with authors calling themselves post-modern.
The author works with the idea that society is not experiencing post-modernity. New social and institutional formations give rise to a liquid modernity, which surpassed the solid modernity of the first half of the 20th century. Which, as a major consequence, left behind the rational and bureaucratic concept of behaviors and institutions.
The man of this liquid modernity is considered fluid, with great adaptability and diverse behavioral, intellectual and sentimental changes, following the pace of transformation of the new society.
Bauman uses the term liquid to make an analogy to the most transforming state of matter.
The author calls the modern era solid because the processes, society and relationships did not fit perfectly into any environment, suffering difficulty in adapting to the new.
See also the meaning of post-modernity.
Zygmunt Bauman - (1925 - 2017)
The 5 main points of liquid modernity according to Bauman:
- Emancipation: it is the fact that people become active and questioning agents of society and if on the one hand they have a greater search for freedom, on the other there is also greater individual responsibility;
- Individuality: Bauman believed that identity has been shaped by consumption and that the individual has made choices and acted for himself, without considering attributes such as cooperation and solidarity;
- time-space: the author emphasized that technology serves as the fragmentation agent of this concept. According to him, the space gets bigger with faster and more efficient machines and more and more things fit in the same period of time, as the events are simultaneous, which consequently also widens the space. Bauman also addresses the urgency of going somewhere is smaller, as there are virtual spaces (social networks) in which we can go anywhere anytime we want;
- Job: in liquid modernity, unemployment is structural in prosperous societies, since professional relationships are unstable and ephemeral. Progress comes from self-confidence and developing short-term strategies and actions;
- Community: there is a weakening of the concept of community, since society today establishes its ties in the form of a network, through connections that are made and undone based on interests contextual.
Furthermore, it is worth noting the great adaptability of liquid society. Therefore, social identity is multiple, not conforming to the labels of religion, nationality and even profession.
The transformation of solid modernity into liquid modernity and its differences
Solid modernity extended into part of the 20th century and is understood by Bauman as a period in that society lived in a notion of community, valuing the connection and identification between the people. This whole idea brought a concept of durability and a sense of security.
Even in this period, principles changed at a slow and totally predictable pace, making it possible to see clearly where processes and behaviors were going and where they would arrive. Thus, modern society had a sense of control over the world, be it technology or the economy, for example.
The two primary characteristics of this solid society are the organization of human activities and institutions, parallel to the bureaucratic line.
That is, the bureaucracy permeated the activities and institutions to make the organization, so that the practical reasoning is used to solve everyday problems.
However, global economic instability and globalization have contributed to the loss of the idea of control over world processes.
All these changes brought uncertainties about society's ability to adapt to new social patterns, which are liquefying and constantly changing.
In this passage from the solid to the liquid world, Bauman highlights the great transition of social forms: whether at work, in the family, in love, in friendship or even in identity itself.
This transition from solid to liquid presupposes that events materialized in modernity have become radicalized in the contemporary world.
See also the meaning of Industrial Revolution.
net relations
Liquid modernity generates instability for everything around us, including human relationships and life together, such as family groups, friends, among others.
What Bauman highlights in his literary work is that the relationships lost the stability and consistency that existed in solid modernity, becoming exchanges for different purposes.
Bauman made a deeper analysis of affective relationships in his literary work "Amor Liquid", where he addresses the structures of relationships in liquid modernity.
In one of his interviews with a Brazilian media, Bauman gave the following answer when asked about the meaning of Liquid Love:
Liquid love is love "until further notice", love from the standard of consumer goods: keep them while they bring you satisfaction and replace them with ones that promise even more satisfaction. Love with a spectrum of immediate elimination, and thus also permanent anxiety, hovering above it. In its “liquid” form, love tries to substitute quality for quantity—but it can never be done, as its practitioners sooner or later come to realize. It is good to remember that love is not a “found object”, but a product of a long and often difficult effort and good will.
See also the meaning of:
- Capitalism;
- Industrial Capitalism.
