Zygmunt Bauman: The sociology of the multiplicity of approaches

In this paper, the author explores the sociology of Zygmunt Bauman, which is viewed as the multiplicity of approaches, that is, as a sociological thought composed of various sources and influences. Although eclectic and hybrid, Bauman?s sociology has not lost its authenticity. The paper represents a modest attempt to create an approximate whole of a critical and engaged public sociology from the multitude of diverse topics that Bauman addressed. These characteristics are the most lasting and powerful features of Bauman?s entire sociology, regardless of its extensive thematic content, theoretical heterogeneity, and methodological inconsistencies. Without intending to be original or strict sociological discourse, Bauman?s sociology of postmodernity has shown how sociological classics can be used in the interpretation of the fluid modern society. The author emphasizes that, in Bauman?s work, there is a strong demand to overcome classical sociology with all its historically accumulated problems and theoretical-methodological infrastructural divisions and limitations; to maintain a connection with its foundations while also finding space within them for new interpretative schemes, for a new hermeneutics, and for the language of new metaphors. This metaphorical language of Bauman?s, which will also face criticism, represents a research effort and a conscious risk to delve into the real social life of concrete people and their practices.