Zygmunt Bauman on Time and Detemporalisation Processes

This article is about social and cultural time as a constant and recurrent motive in Zygmunt Bauman’s work. Time and detemporalisation processes, continuity and mutability, permanency and episodicity are all sometimes more, sometimes less clearly outlined but always present themes in his analyses of modernity, postmodernity, globalisation, consumption, consumer society, contemporary social polarisation, and the condition of the socially excluded. This recurrent presence of the temporal dimension in Bauman’s writings means that his entire work can be viewed as an original, multidimensional, coherent, consistent and also very interesting voice on time and its vicissitudes in our present world. Bauman’s contribution to the temporal analysis of our age is presented against the broader backdrop of contemporary reflection on the issue of time.