Anthony Elliott

Anthony Elliott is Executive Director of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence at the University of South Australia, where he is Research Professor of Sociology and Dean of External Engagement. He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, Senior Member of King’s College Cambridge, and SuperGlobal Professor of Sociology (Visiting) at Keio University, Japan. He is the author and editor of more than forty books, and his recent publications include The Culture of AI: Everyday life and the digital revolution (2019), Concepts of the Self (2020, 4^th Edition), and Reinvention (2021, 2nd Edition).

Anthony Elliott reviews 'The Cosmopolitan Vision' by Ulrich Beck translated by Ciaran Cronin and 'Power in the Global Age: A new global political economy' by Ulrich Beck, translated by Kathleen Cross

March 2007, no. 289 • 01 March 2007

A spectre is haunting the globe – the spectre of cosmopolitanism. You might discern it in the call by José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, for a new kind of European justice, replete with regional police force (Europol) and magistracy (Eurojust). You might glean it from the global spread of human rights movements, protesting the suffering of children and civilians in, say, ... (read more)

Anthony Elliott reviews 'Bauman: A biography' by Izabela Wagner

September 2020, no. 424 • 21 August 2020

With the possible exception of Jean Baudrillard or Anthony Giddens, it is difficult to think of a contemporary sociologist who has rivalled the international intellectual standing, as well as global fame, of the late Zygmunt Bauman. In his subtle, worldly intelligence, his interdisciplinary engagement, and his poetic cast of mind, Bauman stands out as one of the most influential social thinkers of ... (read more)

Anthony Elliott reviews 'The Life of I: The new culture of narcissism' by Anne Manne

September 2014, no. 364 • 01 September 2014

It is now approaching eighty-five years since Freud published his seminal book, Civilization and Its Discontents (1930). A foundational work of psychoanalytic cultural criticism, Freud’s focus was repression and its cultural consequences. He argued that sexual repression, and its associated guilt, had become the fundamental problem of modern societies. Freud understood society as a kind of trade ... (read more)