28/01/2026
📖 V nedávno vyšlé publikaci Challenges for Europeanness in an Age of Global Crises najdete také kapitolu od Michaela Sochora s názvem: „The Liquidity of Postmodern Identity: An Opportunity to Create Our Teleology?“
Gratulujeme! 🤩
Bauman’s conceptualisation of postmodern identity identifies two pivotal characteristics. The initial aspect, which will be designated a critical one, is an almost entirely negative portrayal of postmodern society. Such a society is a liquid one, because of its dismemberment and fragmentation of identity, its disconnection from past and future, as well as its conception of the “never-ending carnival” of kaleidoscopic culture. It can be argued that the postmodern society we inhabit contains a multitude of ephemeral joys and pleasures – or activities presented this way – that are not underpinned by any overarching conception of a meta-aim or a principal sense of purpose. The second aspect described by Bauman is that of the distinctiveness of European culture, one which could be described as rather promising. Bauman draws on George Steiner’s idea that perhaps the most distinctive quality of European history is its remarkable capacity to integrate a multitude of external influences and to adapt to the evolving demands of historical change; or, to quote Hans Georg Gadamer, its ability to live with the Different. The objective of this chapter is to defend the concept of the liquidity of our postmodernist absence of a strong, meta-oriented identity and to argue that such a situation represents an opportunity to re-create such a meta-oriented identity and encapsulate it (to paraphrase Cornelius Castoriadis) in more clearly defined terms. It is proposed that a specific conceptualisation of Europeanness could fulfil this role.