000			02857cam a2200397 a 4500
001			10215
003			CUTN
005			20130405101952.0
008			080411s2008 enk b 001 0 eng
015			_aGBA856724 _2bnb
016			_a014589572 _2Uk
020			_a9780745643250 (hbk.)
020			_a0745643256 (hbk.)
020			_a9780745643267 (pbk.)
020			_a0745643264 (pbk.)
035			_a(OCoLC)225432163
035			_a(OCoLC)ocn225432163
035			_a(UkLU)b30910766
038			_aOCoLC
040			_aUKM _cUKM _dBTCTA _dYDXCP _dBAKER _dBWKUK _dBWK _dBWX
042			_aukblcatcopy
049			_lo
050		4	_aHM1276 _b.B378 2008
082	0	4	_a302.54 _222
100	1		_aBauman, Zygmunt, _d1925- _zBAU
245	1	4	_aThe art of life / _cZygmunt Bauman.
260			_aCambridge : _bPolity, _c2008.
300			_a142 p. ; _c23 cm.
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references (p. [134]-139) and index.
505	0		_aIntroduction: What is wrong with happiness? -- Miseries of Happiness -- We, the Artists of Life -- The Choice -- Afterword: On Organizing and Being Organized.
520			_aIn our individualized society we are all artists of life - whether we know it or not, will it or not and like it or not, by decree of society if not by our own choice. In this society we are all expected, rightly or wrongly, to give our lives purpose and form by using our own skills and resources, even if we lack the tools and materials with which artists' studios need to be equipped for the artist's work to be conceived and executed. And we are praised or censured for the results - for what we have managed or failed to accomplish and for what we have achieved and lost. In our liquid modern society we are also taught to believe that the purpose of the art of life should be and can be happiness - though it's not clear what happiness is, the images of a happy state keep changing and the state of happiness remains most of the time something yet-to-be-reached. This new book by Zygmunt Bauman - one of the most original and influential social thinkers writing today - is not a book of designs for the art of life nor a 'how to' book: the construction of a design for life and the way it is pursued is and cannot but be an individual responsibility and individual accomplishment. It is instead a brilliant account of conditions under which our designs-for-life are chosen, of the constraints that might be imposed on their choice and of the interplay of design, accident and character that shape their implementation. Last but not least, it is a study of the ways in which our society - the liquid modern, individualized society of consumers - influences (but does not determine) the way we construct and narrate our life trajectories.
650		0	_aIndividualism.
650		0	_aLife.
907			_a.b28753665
942			_2ddc _cBOOKS
999			_c997 _d997