
What Use is Sociology?: Conversations with Michael Hviid Jacobsen and Keith Tester
Author(s): Zygmunt Bauman (Author), Michael Hviid Jacobsen (Author), Keith Tester (Author)
- Publisher: Polity
- Publication Date: 8 Nov. 2013
- Edition: 1st
- Language: English
- Print length: 180 pages
- ISBN-10: 9780745671246
- ISBN-13: 0745671241
Book Description
In a series of conversations with Michael Hviid Jacobsen and Keith Tester, Zygmunt Bauman explains why sociology is necessary if we hope to live fully human lives. But the kind of sociology he advocates is one which sees ‘use’ as more than economic success and knowledge as more than the generation of facts. Bauman makes a powerful case for the practice of sociology as an ongoing dialogue with human experience, and in so doing he issues a call for us all to start questioning the common sense of our everyday lives. He also offers the clearest statement yet of the principles which inform his own work, reflecting on his life and career and on the role of sociology in our contemporary liquid-modern world.
This book stands as a testimony to Bauman’s belief in the enduring relevance of sociology. But it is also a call to us all to start questioning the world in which we live and to transform ourselves from being the victims of circumstance into the makers of our own history. For that, at the end of the day, is the use of sociology.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Sociology
“
What Use is Sociology? is a series of intimate conversations, which mine Bauman’s more than half a century of experience in the disciple―discussions which revisit truisms of the “sociological imagination” and which are littered with interesting anecdotes and asides particular to Bauman’s own intellectual journey. Bauman’s answers reveal the depth of his moral commitments and breadth of his critical engagement.”LSE Review of Books
“Sociology’s principle purpose is to rouse people out of indifference and into action and it is this transition from inert to active knowledge that Bauman convincingly argues can bring about real change.”
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