From Modernity and the Holocaust to Thinking Sociologically

Abstract

This work seeks to highlight Zygmunt Bauman’s criticism of sociology based on two of his works published in the late 1980s and early 1990s: Modernity and the Holocaust (1990) and Thinking Sociologically (1990). The article establishes that there is a strong link between both texts, and readers should approach them as related works. In those books, Bauman maintains that the positivist theory of progress distinguishes sociological perspective and explains the mistakes that led to address the Holocaust and other genocides as an exception and not as a consequence of modernity. Based on this criticism, Bauman approaches sociology’s negligence in its treatment of these phenomena. As a counterpoint, he highlights the importance of integrating  exclusion as a category and the antagonism between “us” and “them” as major starting points in the sociological analysis to explain discrimination within social networks and the resulting behaviors, ranging from simple estrangement to the gravest xenophobic expressions.