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Zygmunt Bauman           "società dell'incertezza, modernità liquida, etica degli affari" Biografia Zygmunt Bauman is Emeritus Professor of Sociology, having served as Professor of Sociology and, at various times, Head of Department at Leeds from 1972 until his retirement in 1990. He was formerly of the University of Warsaw until 1968 and the University of Tel Aviv, and held several visiting professorships, in Australia and elsewhere, before coming to Leeds. He is now Professor Emeritus also at the University of Warsaw. Zygmunt Bauman is known throughout the world for works such as Legislators and Interpreters (1987), Modernity and the Holocaust (1989), Modernity and Ambivalence (1991) and Postmodern Ethics (1993). He is the author of some 21 books in English and of numerous articles and reviews. A full bibliography to 1995 can be found in R. Kilminster and I. Varcoe (eds.) Culture, Modernity and Revolution: Essays in Honour of Zygmunt Bauman (Routledge, 1996) and an updated bibliography to 2000 at the following Bibliography Link. His reputation, although already well-established by the 1970s in Western Europe and North America as well as throughout the then Eastern Bloc, grew at an especially rapid rate in the late 1980s, and today he is described variously as one of the twentieth century’s great social theorists and the world’s foremost sociologist of postmodernity. Even this second designation may, however, belong in the past, because Bauman's thought is always moving on to break new ground - at least two new books are projected for the early 2000s. Suffice it to say that his undeniable success is built not only on his powers of creative thought and analysis and his superb sociological acumen, but also on his literary skill as a writer and expositor. While heading the Department of Sociology, of which he was the first Professor, Bauman brought to the task of running things great qualities of intellectual leadership. From the start he saw his task as one of inspiring students, and among his academic colleagues promoting a collegial atmosphere in which new academic projects were welcomed and free and open discussion encouraged in an atmosphere of mutual tolerance and understanding. Despite holding firm moral and political commitments of his own, Bauman was attached to the idea of sociology as a broad discipline which could and should enable diversity to flourish. His retirement in 1990 was a loss to the Department in terms of a daily presence and a continuing influence. Since then, however, he has maintained his contact with the Department, helping it considerably through his good offices, but mainly through his considerable reputation, from which sociology at Leeds has continued to benefit. Zygmunt Bauman was awarded the Amalfi European Prize in 1990 and the Adorno Prize in 1998. It is difficult to think of higher honours being bestowed on a sociologist, in this case of European and indeed world standing.