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Zygmunt Bauman


Zygmunt Bauman is Emeritus Professor at the University of Leeds and one of Europe’s foremost sociologists. He is author of ‘Liquid Modernity’ (Polity 2000) and many other books on contemporary society.

Zygmunt Bauman

How Neoliberalism Prepared The Way For Donald Trump

Zygmunt Bauman 16th November 2016

I still vividly remember what fewer and fewer people, as time goes by, can and do: the names that Nikita Khrushchev, having decided to expose and publicly decry and condemn the crimes of the Soviet regime to prevent their repetition, gave to the moral blindness and inhumanity which was until then its mark: he called […]

Trump: A Quick Fix For Existential Anxiety

Zygmunt Bauman 14th November 2016

Amongst the “liberal left”, in the UK and USA, there’s a major response to the Donald Trump’s electoral success: fear. “This is a moment of great peril”, “Donald Trump’s victory challenges the western democratic model”; he will “carry us into a different political era, a post-neoliberal, post-end-of-history politics, than any other imaginable president…”; “the election […]

No More Walls In Europe: Tear Them Down!

Zygmunt Bauman 27th July 2016

Professor Bauman, it seems like new walls are rising, again, in Europe. The reasons politicians push for the decision to build these walls – either real or “bureaucratic” – refer to the issues of migration and security. How do you judge what is happening? What are the risks in this rush to “securitization” of the […]

Floating Insecurity Searching For An Anchor

Zygmunt Bauman 6th January 2016

The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines “security” as “condition of being protected from or not exposed to danger”; but, at the same time, as “something which makes safe; a protection, guard, defence”: this means, as one of those not common (yet not uncommon either) terms that presume/hint/suggest/ imply, an organic and so once and for […]

The Migration Panic And Its (Mis)uses

Zygmunt Bauman 17th December 2015

TV news, newspaper headlines, political speeches and tweets used to deliver foci and outlets for public anxieties and fears are currently overflowing with references to the “migration crisis” – ostensibly overwhelming Europe and portending the collapse and demise of the way of life we know, practice and cherish. That crisis is at present a sort […]

The Charlie Hebdo Attack And What It Reveals About Society

Zygmunt Bauman 13th January 2015

You went through the tragedies of the 20th century – two wars, Shoah, Stalinism. What’s the specificity of the islamic extremist threat we’re facing today, in your view? Political assassination is as old as humanity and the chances that it will be dead before humanity dies are dim. Violence is an un-detachable companion of inter-human antagonisms […]

The European Elections, Politics And Inequality

Zygmunt Bauman 30th May 2014

Throughout most of our electronic exchanges we tackle the issue of the “self” as such, and its “production” as such, concentrating on the features all selves and all cases of their production share, and only occasionally mentioning their diversities. But “selves” come in many shapes and colours, and so do the settings, mechanisms, procedures of […]

The Changing Nature Of Work And Agency In Times Of Interregnum

Zygmunt Bauman 9th January 2014

Henning Meyer has asked my opinion on the big societal challenges likely to characterize the year we’ve just entered. There are, no doubt, many – perhaps uncountable – unresolved issues that will demand close watching during the coming year and press us for bold decisions and fateful steps. They are too numerous and most of […]

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Spring Issues

The Summer issue of The Progressive Post is out!


It is time to take action and to forge a path towards a Socialist renewal.


European Socialists struggle to balance their responsibilities with the need to take bold positions and actions in the face of many major crises, while far-right political parties are increasingly gaining ground. Against this background, we offer European progressive forces food for thought on projecting themselves into the future.


Among this issue’s highlights, we discuss the transformative power of European Social Democracy, examine the far right’s efforts to redesign education systems to serve its own political agenda and highlight the growing threat of anti-gender movements to LGBTIQ+ rights – among other pressing topics.

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WSI Minimum Wage Report 2025

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