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Culture In A Liquid Modern WorldStock informationGeneral Fields
Special Fields
DescriptionIn its original formulation, 'culture' was intended to be an agent for change, a mission undertaken with the aim of educating 'the people' by bringing the best of human thought and creativity to them. But in our contemporary liquid-modern world, culture has lost its missionary role and has become a means of seduction: it seeks no longer to enlighten the people but to seduce them. The function of culture today is not to satisfy existing needs but to create new ones, while simultaneously ensuring that existing needs remain permanently unfulfilled. Culture today likens itself to a giant department store where the shelves are overflowing with desirable goods that are changed on a daily basis - just long enough to stimulate desires whose gratification is perpetually postponed. Author descriptionZygmunt Bauman is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at University of Leeds Table of contents1. Some notes on the historical peregrinations of the concept of "Culture" 2. On fashion, liquid identity and utopia for today - some cultural tendencies in the 21st century. 3. Culture from nation-building to globalization 4 Culture in a world of diasporas 5. Culture in a uniting Europe 6. Culture between state and market |