On Education (ePub)

What is the role of education in a world where we no longer have a
clear vision of the future and where the idea of a single,
universal model of humanity seems like the residue of a bygone age?
What role should educators play in a world where young people find
themselves faced with deep uncertainty about their future, where
the prospects of securing a stable, long-term career seem
increasingly remote and where intensified population movements have
created more diverse communities in which different cultures find
themselves living side by side, no longer bound together by the
belief that the other would eventually be assimilated into
'our' culture?

Faced with the bewildering features of our liquid modern world,
many young people are inclined to withdraw - in some cases into the
online world of games and virtual relationships, in other cases
into anorexia, depression, alcohol or even drug abuse, hoping to
find shelter from a world perceived as more and more dangerous.
Others launch into more violent forms of behaviour, like street
gangs and the looting carried out by young people who have been
excluded from the temples of consumption but are eager to
participate in the ceremony. And all this happens while our
politicians look on, uncomprehending and indifferent.

In this short book Zygmunt Bauman - the leading social theorist
of our liquid modern world, here in conversation with Riccardo
Mazzeo - reflects on the predicament of young people today and on
the role of education and the educator in a world where the
certainties of our predecessors can no longer be taken for
granted.