Table of Contents

1 Between mixophilia and mixophobia 1

2 Jose Saramago: ways of being happy 7

3 Gregory Bateson and his third level of education 11

4 From closure of mind to 'permanent revolution' 15

5 Oak trees and ridiculously minute acorns 24

6 Looking for a genuine 'cultural revolution' 27

7 Depravation is the cleverest strategy of deprivation 31

8 Minutes to destroy, years to build 40

9 The young as a tip for the consumer industry 54

10 The effort to improve mutual understanding is a prolific source of human creativity 60

11 The unemployed can always play lotto, can't they? 65

12 Disability, abnormality, minority as a political problem 74

13 Indignation and swarm- like political groupings 80

14 Defective consumers and never- ending minefields 86

15 Richard Sennett on difference 100

16 From Lacan's 'capitalist' to Bauman's 'consumerist' 112

17 ?i?ek and Morin on monotheism 121

18 Proust's petite madeleine and consumerism 126

19 On fuels, sparks and fires 130

20 On glocalization coming of age 136

About the Author

Zygmunt Bauman is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Leeds Riccardo Mazzeo is editor at the Italian publisher Edizioni Erickson

Reviews

"Bauman's knack for placing things in context and accounting forthat uneasy feeling you get from this or that current developmentmakes [On Education] stimulating." InsideHigher Ed "When graduates can't find jobs, the bargain of commercialisededucation take out enormous student loans that will berepaid by your supposedly high salary later on breaks down.So worries the sociologist Bauman, in a perky and colourful writteninterview with the Italian publisher Mazzeo. Even so, Baumanremains hopeful about the 'openness' of mind ideally encouraged byschooling indeed, as he points out sharply, it is not'practical' otherwise." StevenPoole, The Guardian