Post-society: Social life after the pandemic Open Access

Carlo Bordoni describes his book as a ‘non-academic analysis of society in the aftermath of the pandemic’ (p. 3). Bordoni explains that a new post-social epoch has developed following the Covid-19 pandemic that brings to a rapid conclusion the elements of the interregnum as identified by Zygmunt Bauman in his liquid turn writings. For Bauman, the interregnum was a period of transition in which old social arrangements were seen to be no longer fit for purpose but new arrangements were yet to emerge. Post-society is a product of two determining factors: the end of modernity and the global pandemic.

Little of Bauman’s understanding of liquid modernity remains. The spread of Covid 19 and the fear generated by the pandemic accelerated an epochal transition and after a ‘long goodbye’ (p. 5), ‘modernity gives way to a new time’ (p. 144). Modernity in both its capitalist and socialist forms is secular for Bordoni and built upon a belief in science, the domination of nature, a belief in success, the use of instrumental rationality, faith in progress, unlimited economic growth and the significant role of work as providing the individual with a sense of identity and dignity within a well ordered and functioning society. Above all, modernity has agency for Bordoni:

For Bordoni ‘modernity is indeed over,’ the pandemic ‘ended an era’ (p. 36). The post-social world is not modernity, liquid modernity, or hyper-modernity. Living with the virus: ‘entails a structural change in society, an adjustment, a reconstruction on a different basis, where work and study, travel, meeting people, and even simple acts such as having coffee in a café will be characterised by new forms of behaviour, which will soon become routine’ (p. 77). Post-society is described as a ‘sublimated sociality’ in which ideologies disappear and there is an ‘unlimited faith in technology’ (p. 149) and technology moves autonomously without the need for human intervention (p. 118). Post-society has much in common with Marc Auge’s conception of a ‘non-place’, cities are made up of dormitory buildings, consumerism continues but online, shops and shop windows disappear, supermarkets disappear, as retail takes its lead from Amazon, human lives are isolated from one another, all contact is virtual and characterised by a form of ‘cold ethics’, people work online from home (pp. 152–153). To quell their fear, anomie and psychological unease, people have a desire for ‘voluntary submission,’ ‘tighter control and surveillance’ (p. 107).

Modernity rather than social relations have ended, and the traits of liquefaction have ‘solidified’ rather than disappeared what has emerged is a new form of collectivity identified by: ‘proxemic diversity, accompanied by an individualistic culture, innovative working conditions, advanced mechanization, massive use of new technologies, new information systems and new ways of consuming’ (p. 7). In addition, there is a loss of values, ideologies, and certainties; solidarity has been replaced by the right to dignity. A stay-at-home generation has emerged as people avoid social gatherings and direct personal contact. People embrace ‘cold ethics’ and ‘cold intimacies,’ a way of life that rejects sharing, which generates ‘desocialisation’ and undermines solidarity. Furthermore, COVID-19 has reversed the tendency within modernity to view social problems as personal issues. Blind fear underpins the continued desire to maintain a social distance from others to avoid exposure to contamination of some form that may be unknown but dangerous and unpleasant.

Post-society is rich in descriptive observation but limited in terms of data presented consequently much of the observation presented appears to be an appeal to common sense and personal reflection on media representations. To provide his observations and argument with a feeling of rigour Bordoni has merged his account with arguments and observations from other theorists, writing before the pandemic who develop ideas that can be slotted into his line of reasoning.

In basing his argument on the assumption that the pandemic has unlocked a new set of social arrangements, Bordoni’s argument has all the hallmarks of what Mike Savage (2009) describes as epochalism. Epochalist modes of social thought proclaim the arrival of a new kind of society. Bordoni attempts to instantiate or redefine society at a conceptual level by inventing a new stage of periodising based upon reducing the past to a narrow set of abstract characteristics rather than an empirical description. The post-Covid characteristics (social distance, revaluation of emotions, voluntary submission to social control, the trend of diminishing rationality in behaviour, discrediting of science, and rising of irrational violence), was not solely a product of the pandemic but: ‘tendencies already in existence due to the crisis of modernity, which the pandemic has accentuated, making them more visible’ (Bordoni 2022: personal correspondence).

Post-society is presented as the arrival of a new set of conditions, a sharp contrast to how things are judged to have been in the past compared to contemporary society. Savage argues that this form of championing the ‘new’ by presenting a series of epoch descriptions was started by Galbraith (1958) with his understanding of the affluent society. As Savage (2009, p. 223) comments:

In many respects, what Galbraith identified as ‘new’ in the 1950s is presented by Bordoni as new in 2022.

In terms of the changing nature of class in post-society, Bordoni argues that because of the progressive integration of people with technology, two new rival classes emerge. The ‘creatives,’ are a group of people who produce ideas and can maintain an equal and collaborative relationship with technology. Secondly, the ‘operators,’ whose role is to operate and maintain the technology. The working class remains in a subordinate position, made even more precarious because technology increasingly replaces human labour, and many working-class people consequently find themselves competing for work in the gig economy.

In contrast to Bordoni’s vision of a post-society, in the twentieth century Nazism and other totalitarian regimes: ‘tended towards total militarization of society and imposed authoritarian values that exalted violence, force, determination, order, and recourse to war as the only way to resolve conflict’ (p. 82). This is reflected in an extreme form of the culture of control found within the social order of all modern societies. In these terms, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia reflects that modernity has not completely exhausted its life cycle after the extreme attempts to impose order by force in the twentieth century. If for arguments sake we accept that a new post-social epoch has emerged, I am surprised that Bordoni does not explore the back-to-modernity influence of Trump, fake news, forced migration, Putin, Brexit, etc. on the shaping of the contemporary world and the lives of people within it. Rather, Bordoni explores how his understanding of the contemporary epoch differs from other epochal accounts. In any case, the epochal accounts that Bordoni comments upon have a very limited shelf life and are regularly replaced by newer ‘new’ accounts that attempt to capture the ‘new’.

As is also common with epochal accounts of the ‘new’, Bordoni tends to assume that social processes and theoretical constructs have agency. This is reflected in comments such as: ‘neoliberalism seized the opportunity’ (p. 40). In his discussion of repressed individuality, he explains: ‘that was what the system wanted’ (p. 89). To assume that modernity, or subsequent epochal constructions, rather than people, have agency does not consider the complexities of social life and the potential drivers of social change.

In the last analysis, the largely data-free abstract epochal argument is not in itself convincing, since the late 1950s sociologists have with increasing regularity announced the birth of a new epoch characterised by a new social formation that soon become outdated. This is true of Bordoni’s understanding of post-society. On a more positive note, there are two interesting chapters within the book: on the ‘primacy of emotions’ addresses a range of issues including narcissism, social control and the interruption of emotional entanglements and gives an informed outline and evaluation of a wide range of relevant theory and research in the field; a chapter on ‘voluntary submission’ explores the ‘new’ culture of visibility and surveillance – again the argument is both interesting and well informed. However, cold emotions and intrusive surveillance are found in modern societies and despite Bordoni’s best efforts, both chapters feel disconnected from the book’s central epochal argument.