Best
Biographic Data
| ID | 37068 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Best |
| FAMILY NAME | Best |
| SIGNATURE | BEST |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Manchester |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4906-9477 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 109 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 27 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1969 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Searching for the Ariadne Thread in Zygmunt Bauman's Early Contributions to Social Analysis
Introduction: The aspiration industry and the meritocratic sort
Introduction: The aspiration industry and the meritocratic sort
Disrupting Dignity: Rethinking Power and Progress in LGBTQ Lives
Zygmunt Bauman: Narrating a Contested Life
Zygmunt Bauman and the theory of culture
Post-society: Social life after the pandemic
Wagner: Bauman
Book review of: Wagner, Izabela (2020) Bauman: A Biography. Cambridge: Polity Press 510 pp.ISBN: 978-1-5095-2686-4Price: £25,00
Liquid Love: Zygmunt Bauman’s thesis on sex revisited
In Liquid Love, Zygmunt Bauman (2003) argued that within liquid modernity a consumer driven, adiaphoric, sexual free for all had emerged, rooted in an intense unregulated individualism. Sexuality was identified by Bauman as one of the areas of social life that had become privatized; that the state had withdrawn from regulation. Liquid Love is identified as one application too far for Bauman’s liquefaction thesis in that the book highlights the co…
Zygmunt Bauman on Education in Liquid Modernity
Zygmunt Bauman on Education in Liquid Modernity evaluates the contribution that Bauman has made to education studies. It outlines the central themes within social analysis in Bauman’s writings, and examines how researchers have applied his key ideas to explore current theoretical issues. The book focuses on Bauman’s ideas in relation to the management and consumption of education, including topics such as student voice and individual identity; re…
Aspiration, abjection and precariousness: The neo-liberal educator’s desire for compliance
Aspiration has come to play a central role in the British government’s approach to educational underachievement. This article revisits research conducted in the 1970s by Paul Corrigan and Paul Willis to examine the impact of neo-liberalism on the school life of young teenagers. The behaviours of working-class children as described by Corrigan and Willis have become increasingly regarded as problematical by policymakers and school leaders. This ar…
Education in the interregnum: An evaluation of Zygmunt Bauman’s liquid-turn writing on education
In his liquid-turn writings, Zygmunt Bauman has come to identify liquid modernity as a period of interregnum. Education has a central role to play within the contemporary interregnum by opening up a new public sphere for dialogue. However, the processes of liquefaction manifest themselves in conditions that severely limit a person's ability to exercise their human agency. Bauman provides no indication of how the educators can escape the processes…
Zygmunt Bauman: On what it means to be included
Although Zygmunt Bauman has written very little directly about education, his underpinning ideas on the transition from solid to liquid modernity, the mechanisms of social exclusion, the Other and the stranger have had a significant impact on education research. Taking his starting point from a questionable secular reading of Emmanuel Levinas’s contribution to ethics, Bauman’s account of social exclusion has become well respected. The social forc…
Agency and Structure in Zygmunt Bauman's Modernity and the Holocaust
The article explores how Zygmunt Bauman's work from Modernity and the Holocaust to his liquid turn writings assumes that people live in a deterministic world. Bauman fails to distinguish agency as an analytical category in its own right and as such fails to capture self-determination, agential control and moral responsibility. All of Bauman's work is based upon the assumption that the individual loses their autonomy and the ability to judge the m…
Liquid fandom: Neo-tribes and fandom in the context of liquid modernity
This paper is a critique of the work of Zygmunt Bauman and Michel Maffesoli as it has been applied to the study of soccer/football fans. Liquid life is the name that Bauman gives to the experience of life within ‘liquid modernity’ – a form of modernity in which social frameworks and institutions experience a process of accelerating liquefaction. Drawing upon an autobiographical approach, the paper raises concerns about using Bauman’s analysis of …
Sporting sanctions as symbolic violence: An evaluation of how the Football League communicates with fans who challenge the legitimacy of the sporting sanctions policy
Shaun Besta* a Director, Management and Leisure Programme, University of Manchester , Manchester , UK
Identifying Citizens: ID Cards as Surveillance - By D. Lyon
Leisure Studies: Themes and Perspectives
What is the place of leisure in societies where people complain of 'over-work'? How do personal freedom and choice relate to the inequalities of class, gender, disability and ethnicity? This critical introduction to the field offers a systematic account of the meaning and structure of leisure today. The book: situates the student in the field. provides a comprehensive account of the leading approaches to leisure. explores the influence of class, …
Leeds United and football's super creditors
Before the start of the 2007/8 season, the English Football League imposed a 15‐point ‘sanction’ on Leeds United for a breach of the League's insolvency rules. This article is a case study of the Football League's decision, the central elements of the Football League's insolvency policy, the reasons why the Football League chose to impose the additional ‘sanction’ and the possible implications for professional football in England of not applying …
The Leicester School of Football Hooliganism: An Evaluation
For over 20 years, the Leicester School have shaped the theories and research on crowd disturbances at football grounds. This article is an evaluation of the School's application of the figurational approach to the study of crowd disorder at football grounds. The School draw upon Elias's work to understand the reaction of the respectable population to crowd disorder. However, in their explanation of hooliganism, the School abandons Elias's figura…
Liquid Terrorism: Altruistic Fundamentalism in the Context of Liquid Modernity
Liquid life is the name that Zygmunt Bauman gives to the experience of life within 'liquid modernity' - a form of modernity in which social frameworks and institutions experience a process of accelerating liquefaction. On the basis of a narrative analysis of martyr videos recorded by the 7 July 2005 London bombers and eight men who stood trial in the United Kingdom for planning to bomb transatlantic airliners with home-made liquid explosives, a c…
The social construction of pain: An evaluation
Drawing upon the work of Hughes and Patterson, this paper addresses the issue of whether a socially constructed conception of pain is possible or desirable. Contrary to a number of postmodern inspired conceptions that pain exists exclusively at the level of discourse and linguistic construction, pain is viewed as a material barrier that exists beyond the politico‐aesthetic level. The body is much more than a canvas upon which we can create approp…
Understanding Social Divisions
The study of social division has dominated research within the social sciences since the nineteenth century. This book addresses the full range of social divisions while considering the nature of social division itself
A Beginner's Guide to Social Theory
Offering a comprehensive overview of social theory from classical sociology to the present day, this text guides students through the work of Durkheim, Marx and Weber, feminism postmodernism and contemporary thinkers like Foucault
Introduction to Politics and Society
Beginning with key concepts and the main theoretical contributions in the study of politics, Shaun Best's study introduces the most important political ideas of Weber, Marx Foucault, Bauman, Sennett, Habermas, Baudrillard and Giddens
Thracian peltasts and their influence on Greek warfare
Zygmunt Bauman: Personal Reflections within the Mainstream of Modernity
In this paper the author outlines some of the key ideas within Zygmunt Bauman's sociology; both in terms of his contribution to the creation of a postmodern sociology and his substantive texts. The critique that he develops, is that Bauman's work is assembled upon a modernist notion of 'the social' which he not only accepts without question, but which undermines his attempts to devise a distinctly postmodern sociology. His substantive texts still…
Liquid fandom: Neo-tribes and fandom in the context of liquid modernity
This paper is a critique of the work of Zygmunt Bauman and Michel Maffesoli as it has been applied to the study of soccer/football fans. Liquid life is the name that Bauman gives to the experience of life within ‘liquid modernity’ – a form of modernity in which social frameworks and institutions experience a process of accelerating liquefaction. Drawing upon an autobiographical approach, the paper raises concerns about using Bauman’s analysis of …
The social construction of pain: An evaluation
Drawing upon the work of Hughes and Patterson, this paper addresses the issue of whether a socially constructed conception of pain is possible or desirable. Contrary to a number of postmodern inspired conceptions that pain exists exclusively at the level of discourse and linguistic construction, pain is viewed as a material barrier that exists beyond the politico‐aesthetic level. The body is much more than a canvas upon which we can create approp…
The Leicester School of Football Hooliganism: An Evaluation
For over 20 years, the Leicester School have shaped the theories and research on crowd disturbances at football grounds. This article is an evaluation of the School's application of the figurational approach to the study of crowd disorder at football grounds. The School draw upon Elias's work to understand the reaction of the respectable population to crowd disorder. However, in their explanation of hooliganism, the School abandons Elias's figura…
Zygmunt Bauman: On what it means to be included
Although Zygmunt Bauman has written very little directly about education, his underpinning ideas on the transition from solid to liquid modernity, the mechanisms of social exclusion, the Other and the stranger have had a significant impact on education research. Taking his starting point from a questionable secular reading of Emmanuel Levinas’s contribution to ethics, Bauman’s account of social exclusion has become well respected. The social forc…
Education in the interregnum: An evaluation of Zygmunt Bauman’s liquid-turn writing on education
In his liquid-turn writings, Zygmunt Bauman has come to identify liquid modernity as a period of interregnum. Education has a central role to play within the contemporary interregnum by opening up a new public sphere for dialogue. However, the processes of liquefaction manifest themselves in conditions that severely limit a person's ability to exercise their human agency. Bauman provides no indication of how the educators can escape the processes…
Zygmunt Bauman: Narrating a Contested Life
Aspiration, abjection and precariousness: The neo-liberal educator’s desire for compliance
Aspiration has come to play a central role in the British government’s approach to educational underachievement. This article revisits research conducted in the 1970s by Paul Corrigan and Paul Willis to examine the impact of neo-liberalism on the school life of young teenagers. The behaviours of working-class children as described by Corrigan and Willis have become increasingly regarded as problematical by policymakers and school leaders. This ar…
Sporting sanctions as symbolic violence: An evaluation of how the Football League communicates with fans who challenge the legitimacy of the sporting sanctions policy
Shaun Besta* a Director, Management and Leisure Programme, University of Manchester , Manchester , UK
Liquid Terrorism: Altruistic Fundamentalism in the Context of Liquid Modernity
Liquid life is the name that Zygmunt Bauman gives to the experience of life within 'liquid modernity' - a form of modernity in which social frameworks and institutions experience a process of accelerating liquefaction. On the basis of a narrative analysis of martyr videos recorded by the 7 July 2005 London bombers and eight men who stood trial in the United Kingdom for planning to bomb transatlantic airliners with home-made liquid explosives, a c…
Thracian peltasts and their influence on Greek warfare
Zygmunt Bauman: Personal Reflections within the Mainstream of Modernity
In this paper the author outlines some of the key ideas within Zygmunt Bauman's sociology; both in terms of his contribution to the creation of a postmodern sociology and his substantive texts. The critique that he develops, is that Bauman's work is assembled upon a modernist notion of 'the social' which he not only accepts without question, but which undermines his attempts to devise a distinctly postmodern sociology. His substantive texts still…
Introduction to Politics and Society
Beginning with key concepts and the main theoretical contributions in the study of politics, Shaun Best's study introduces the most important political ideas of Weber, Marx Foucault, Bauman, Sennett, Habermas, Baudrillard and Giddens
A Beginner's Guide to Social Theory
Offering a comprehensive overview of social theory from classical sociology to the present day, this text guides students through the work of Durkheim, Marx and Weber, feminism postmodernism and contemporary thinkers like Foucault
Understanding Social Divisions
The study of social division has dominated research within the social sciences since the nineteenth century. This book addresses the full range of social divisions while considering the nature of social division itself
The social construction of pain: An evaluation
Drawing upon the work of Hughes and Patterson, this paper addresses the issue of whether a socially constructed conception of pain is possible or desirable. Contrary to a number of postmodern inspired conceptions that pain exists exclusively at the level of discourse and linguistic construction, pain is viewed as a material barrier that exists beyond the politico‐aesthetic level. The body is much more than a canvas upon which we can create approp…
Leisure Studies: Themes and Perspectives
What is the place of leisure in societies where people complain of 'over-work'? How do personal freedom and choice relate to the inequalities of class, gender, disability and ethnicity? This critical introduction to the field offers a systematic account of the meaning and structure of leisure today. The book: situates the student in the field. provides a comprehensive account of the leading approaches to leisure. explores the influence of class, …
Leeds United and football's super creditors
Before the start of the 2007/8 season, the English Football League imposed a 15‐point ‘sanction’ on Leeds United for a breach of the League's insolvency rules. This article is a case study of the Football League's decision, the central elements of the Football League's insolvency policy, the reasons why the Football League chose to impose the additional ‘sanction’ and the possible implications for professional football in England of not applying …
The Leicester School of Football Hooliganism: An Evaluation
For over 20 years, the Leicester School have shaped the theories and research on crowd disturbances at football grounds. This article is an evaluation of the School's application of the figurational approach to the study of crowd disorder at football grounds. The School draw upon Elias's work to understand the reaction of the respectable population to crowd disorder. However, in their explanation of hooliganism, the School abandons Elias's figura…
Liquid Terrorism: Altruistic Fundamentalism in the Context of Liquid Modernity
Liquid life is the name that Zygmunt Bauman gives to the experience of life within 'liquid modernity' - a form of modernity in which social frameworks and institutions experience a process of accelerating liquefaction. On the basis of a narrative analysis of martyr videos recorded by the 7 July 2005 London bombers and eight men who stood trial in the United Kingdom for planning to bomb transatlantic airliners with home-made liquid explosives, a c…
Sporting sanctions as symbolic violence: An evaluation of how the Football League communicates with fans who challenge the legitimacy of the sporting sanctions policy
Shaun Besta* a Director, Management and Leisure Programme, University of Manchester , Manchester , UK
Identifying Citizens: ID Cards as Surveillance - By D. Lyon
Liquid fandom: Neo-tribes and fandom in the context of liquid modernity
This paper is a critique of the work of Zygmunt Bauman and Michel Maffesoli as it has been applied to the study of soccer/football fans. Liquid life is the name that Bauman gives to the experience of life within ‘liquid modernity’ – a form of modernity in which social frameworks and institutions experience a process of accelerating liquefaction. Drawing upon an autobiographical approach, the paper raises concerns about using Bauman’s analysis of …
Agency and Structure in Zygmunt Bauman's Modernity and the Holocaust
The article explores how Zygmunt Bauman's work from Modernity and the Holocaust to his liquid turn writings assumes that people live in a deterministic world. Bauman fails to distinguish agency as an analytical category in its own right and as such fails to capture self-determination, agential control and moral responsibility. All of Bauman's work is based upon the assumption that the individual loses their autonomy and the ability to judge the m…
Zygmunt Bauman: On what it means to be included
Although Zygmunt Bauman has written very little directly about education, his underpinning ideas on the transition from solid to liquid modernity, the mechanisms of social exclusion, the Other and the stranger have had a significant impact on education research. Taking his starting point from a questionable secular reading of Emmanuel Levinas’s contribution to ethics, Bauman’s account of social exclusion has become well respected. The social forc…
Aspiration, abjection and precariousness: The neo-liberal educator’s desire for compliance
Aspiration has come to play a central role in the British government’s approach to educational underachievement. This article revisits research conducted in the 1970s by Paul Corrigan and Paul Willis to examine the impact of neo-liberalism on the school life of young teenagers. The behaviours of working-class children as described by Corrigan and Willis have become increasingly regarded as problematical by policymakers and school leaders. This ar…
Education in the interregnum: An evaluation of Zygmunt Bauman’s liquid-turn writing on education
In his liquid-turn writings, Zygmunt Bauman has come to identify liquid modernity as a period of interregnum. Education has a central role to play within the contemporary interregnum by opening up a new public sphere for dialogue. However, the processes of liquefaction manifest themselves in conditions that severely limit a person's ability to exercise their human agency. Bauman provides no indication of how the educators can escape the processes…
Liquid Love: Zygmunt Bauman’s thesis on sex revisited
In Liquid Love, Zygmunt Bauman (2003) argued that within liquid modernity a consumer driven, adiaphoric, sexual free for all had emerged, rooted in an intense unregulated individualism. Sexuality was identified by Bauman as one of the areas of social life that had become privatized; that the state had withdrawn from regulation. Liquid Love is identified as one application too far for Bauman’s liquefaction thesis in that the book highlights the co…
Zygmunt Bauman on Education in Liquid Modernity
Zygmunt Bauman on Education in Liquid Modernity evaluates the contribution that Bauman has made to education studies. It outlines the central themes within social analysis in Bauman’s writings, and examines how researchers have applied his key ideas to explore current theoretical issues. The book focuses on Bauman’s ideas in relation to the management and consumption of education, including topics such as student voice and individual identity; re…
Wagner: Bauman
Book review of: Wagner, Izabela (2020) Bauman: A Biography. Cambridge: Polity Press 510 pp.ISBN: 978-1-5095-2686-4Price: £25,00
Post-society: Social life after the pandemic
Zygmunt Bauman and the theory of culture
Introduction: The aspiration industry and the meritocratic sort
Introduction: The aspiration industry and the meritocratic sort
Disrupting Dignity: Rethinking Power and Progress in LGBTQ Lives
Sociology (21 works) · Political science (17 works) · Law (14 works) · Philosophy (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Psychology (9 works) · Epistemology (8 works) · Zygmunt Bauman's Sociology (8 works) · Modernity (7 works) · Politics (7 works)