Zygmunt Bauman’s metaphor of liquid modernity addresses the juxtaposition of increased freedom and mobility with accelerated anxiety in an era of deregulated consumption. His proposal that this emergent condition represents a transition from solid to liquid modernity requires closer scrutiny. If solid modernity concerns new forms of engagement consequent to the breakup of old ones, does liquidity necessarily suggest a process of disembedding without any prospect for re-embedding? This question raises the need to address the plausibility of liquidity as an irreversible process. To treat changes in contemporary society as liquid radicalizes fluidity but it fails to provide recognition for the possibility of re-solidification. Data from some recent studies of race, class and religion suggest such a possibility and the need to re-evaluate the notion of liquidity.
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