Bauman, Zygmunt - Liquid Love.pdf

#1599—CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGY—VOL 33 NO 4—FILE: 33402-reviews 494–Theory and Epistemology account for trust we first need an account of trustworthiness” (p. 83). In order to account for trustworthiness, we need to understand more about the social context, the relationships among actors and actors’ expectations about others. Fortunately, some of the experimental work described here is beginning to pursue these issues, for example, in the chapters by Cook and Cooper, Eckel and Wilson, and Yamagishi. Sociologists skeptical of experimental research in general, and of game theory or evolutionary psychology in particular, may want to start with Margaret Levi’s chapter, appropriately titled “The Transformation of a Skeptic: What Nonexperimentalists Can Learn from Experimentalists.” Levi raises many of the concerns that nonexperimental sociologists are likely to have regarding what we can learn from the very carefully circumscribed conditions created, indeed required, in experimental research. As she points out, and as the several chapters that review experimental research programs demonstrate, it is precisely the control over conditions available in experiments that make them a powerful tool for advancing our understanding of concepts such as trust. Ostrom and Walker are optimistic about the prospects of experimental research: By adding experimental methods to the battery of field methods already used extensively, the social sciences of the twenty-first century will move more rapidly in acquiring well-grounded theories of human behavior and of the effect of diverse institutional arrangements on behavior. (p. 386)

Overall, Trust and Reciprocity provides an extensive review of the findings from experimental research across social, psychological, and even biological sciences to examine what Ostrom and Walker call the “foundations for trust and trustworthy behavior” (p. 7). The breadth of work covered in this book is both a strength and a weakness. Despite the commonality of experimental methods, the diversity of fields, frameworks, and terminology covered throughout means the volume does not really hang together as a coherent view on trust or reciprocity. As an overview of experimental research on trust from diverse fields of study, however, the Contemporary Sociology 33, 4

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volume succeeds and will be of interest to scholars across the social sciences. Reference Hardin, Russell. 2002. Trust and Trustworthiness. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Liquid Love: On the Frailty of Human Bonds, by Zygmunt Bauman. Cambridge, UK: Polity; Malden, MA: Distributed in the USA by Blackwell Publishing, 2003. 162 pp. $52.95 cloth. ISBN: 0-7456-2488-X. $19.95 paper. ISBN: 0-7456-2489-8.

BURçAK KESKIN-KOZAT University of Michigan [email protected] This book is another compelling sequel to Bauman’s Liquid Modernity, published in 2000, in which he discusses the radical transDelivered bymodernity Ingenta to formation of into a fluid process. User Unknown In contrast to early modernity, which IP: 212.159.124.238 imposed strict controls on individual free2004..12..29..15..22.. doms for attaining and perpetuating social order, liquid modernity offers its “denizens” (p. vii) unlimited opportunities of action by putting them—thanks to the escalating consumerism and globalization—in direct control of managing their relationships with others. Such individualized supervision of one’s engagements promises and yet falls short of providing full satisfaction of one’s desires, because, in the absence of universal guarantees for the prospects of interpersonal communication, individuals readily break up their commitments at the slightest perception of a probable loss. The highly unpredictable nature of liquid modernity breeds constant feelings of insecurity, vulnerability, and anxiety, which in turn further intensify brittleness, breakability, and ad hoc modality of social bonds. Bauman elaborates these arguments on the basis of three types of relationships: namely, one’s relationship with the beloved, with his/her social being (through sexual activity and in interaction with the members of his/her community), and with the humanity at large. Through a meticulous analysis of contemporary publications on counseling (about love and intimacy), mobile phone usage, text messaging, soap operas, reality television shows, urban architectural designs,

#1599—CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGY—VOL 33 NO 4—FILE: 33402-reviews Theory and Epistemology–495 and refugee camps, Bauman illustrates how the fluidity and the uncertainties of the contemporary world transform the nature and the meaning of our engagements with each other. “Relationships” are, for Bauman, replaced with “connections” in liquid modernity. Individuals are no longer willing to bond with others, to relate to them for the sake of relating, to love them for their individual uniqueness; because doing so means foregoing the possibilities of finding a more satisfactory fulfillment, “surrendering the right to ‘hunting out pastures new,’ at least until the [others claim] that right first” (p. 11). They instead choose to “connect” with others, to be in a “network” that is tight enough to alleviate one’s feelings of insecurity and yet loose enough to abandon for the momentary temptation of new satisfactions. In this respect, social bonds become objects of consumption, and “the expected satisfaction [from them] tends to be measured against the cost; one looks for ‘value for money’” (p. 42). What does this mean? It means, first of all, that social bonds lose their real meaning and become commodified. Second, social bonds become, by virtue of being commodities, easily disposable at any whim. Such commodification of the lifeworld eventually results in the dehumanization of social life in liquid modernity. Why is this important? Once individuals can emotionally dispose of humans, they can physically isolate themselves from the others and also dissociate themselves from their local community as well as from the global humanity. “The strategy of ‘seeking biographical solutions to the socially produced problems” (p. 44, quoted from Ulrich Beck) eventually results in mixophobia, architectural segregation, xenophobia, and cultural and psychic dislocation of refugees: briefly, in dismantlement of human togetherness and vast accumulation of human waste in the liquid modern world. How can we rectify this? Bauman argues that contemporary social problems are propagated by consumerism, which promotes extreme individualization, and by globalization, which deterritorializes the structures of sovereignty and political economy. There are, he asserts, “no local solutions to global produced problems” (p. 115). To regain their “sociality” (p. 158, ft.15) and human dignity, denizens of liquid modernity should devise

globally focused and locally implemented action plans. Liquid Love is invaluable for grasping the problems of living in a globalized world and inspiring individuals effectively to resolve them. It nonetheless fails to address three critical issues that are indispensable for realizing such endeavors. First, Bauman presents a directional analysis of modernity, a modernity that progresses from the hard to the liquid stage. He ignores the possibility that modernity can be multidirectional and multilayered, that it can be lived and experienced differently in different settings. Second, he classifies denizens of liquid modernity into two homogeneous, mutually exclusive categories: the globetrotting elite versus the underclass. He underestimates the potential differentiation within each group, the probable overlapping group identities, or the possible existence of intermediary groups. Third, Bauman bases his arguments on examples Delivered by Ingenta that are drawn, excepttoin the case of São User Unknown Paulo (pp. 107–09), from the Euro-American IP: 212.159.124.238 settings. The extensive omission of “Rest” 2004..12..29..15..22.. from the analysis renders it as an empty space (on which contemporary modern processes are inscribed) and its inhabitants as incapacitated recipients. The latter become “denizens of liquid modernity” only when they start living as refugees or immigrants in the “West” (see chapter 4). I concur with Bauman that a global plan is necessary for togetherness at this time of human history, but ignoring the multilayered and powerladen experiences of modernity across the globe will miss the possible platforms from which we can launch such a struggle and, hence, gravely undermine the success of such a plan.

Society and Its Metaphors: Language, Social Theory, and Social Structure, by José López. New York; London, UK: Continuum, 2003. 186 pp. $115.00 cloth. ISBN: 0-8264-6384-3. $29.95 paper. ISBN: 0-8264-6385-1.

RUSSELL K. SCHUTT University of Massachusetts Boston [email protected] Alan Sokol’s Social Text hoax is probably responsible for more sociologists’ awareness of modern literary criticism than is any legitContemporary Sociology 33, 4

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