Consuming Life Zygmunt Bauman With the advent of liquid modernity, the society of producers is transformed into a society of consumers. In this new consumer society, individuals become simultaneously the promoters of commodities and the commodities they promote. They are, at one and the same time, the merchandise and the marketer, the goods and the traveling salespeople. The all inhabit the same social space that is customarily described by the term 'the market'. The test they need to pass in order to acquire the social prizes they covet requires them to recast themselves as products capable of drawing attention to themselves. This subtle and pervasive transformation of consumers into commodities is the most important feature of the society of consumers. It is the hidden truth, the deepest and the most closely guarded secret, of the consumer society in which we are now live. In this new book Zygmunt Bauman examines the impact of consumerist attitudes and patters of conduct on various apparently unconnected aspects of social life - politics and democracy, social division and stratification, communities and partnership, identity building, the production and use of knowledge, and value preferences. The invasion and colonization of the web of human relations by the worldviews and behavioral patterns inspired and shaped by commodity markets, and the sources of resentment, dissent and occasional resistance to the occupying forces, are the central themes of this brilliant new book by one of the world's most original and insightful social thinkers. Zygmunt Bauman is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Leeds and the University of Warsaw.