Zygmunt Bauman’s contribution to the discourse on a risk society

Abstract

The paper will seek to present the risks of the consumer society, withemphasis on Zygmunt Bauman’s perspective on the affected areas ofsocial life in the age of liquid modernity.The aim of this paper is theoreticalanalysis of the risks of the consumer society, in other words thesynthesis of discourse standpoints concerning the risk society (Beck,Giddens, Touraine, Bauman) with the focus on specificities of Bauman’scontribution to the discourse. Besides that, the aim is directedto the causal explanation of the risk state through the prism of theglobalizationprocess impact and the dominant ideology of neoliberalism.Theoretical analysis has resulted in perceiving Bauman’s contributionto the discourse on risk society in terms of understanding the transformationof human relations, caused by socio - economic changes inthe sphere of social security and freedom - the essential prerequisitesof a dignified existence of individuals in society.Concluding observations indicatethe type of risk of the contemporarysociety, which is most easily recognized by its dominant attribute –disintegration of social tissue that is a trademark of liquid modernityand life under the pressures of precarious existence marked by fear.