ABSTRACT
The work of Zygmunt Bauman connects social and cultural theory to history and to a principled faith in humans if they are left to be the subjects of their own history. This chapter approaches Bauman’s vast body of work by way of the hypothesis ‘Bauman can be so productive, and his vision of the world can be so consistent despite the changing direction of his gaze, because his thought is built on solid foundations’. The chapter seeks to uncover these foundations in a sociology that sets out to recover humanity and, thereby, to open up the future to the possible, not the probable.
