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The corrosion of character : the personal consequences of work in the new capitalism / Richard Sennett
Bib ID 509402
Format BookBook
Author
Sennett, Richard, 1943-
 
Description New York : Norton, c1998 
176 p. ; 22 cm. 
ISBN 0393046788  0393319873 (pbk.) : 
Summary

Drawing on interviews with dismissed IBM executives in Westchester, New York, bakers in a high-tech Boston bakery, a barmaid turned advertising executive, and many others, Sennett explores the disorienting effects of the new capitalism. He reveals the vivid and illuminating contrast between two worlds of work: the vanished world of rigid, hierarchical organizations, where what mattered was a sense of personal character, and the brave new world of corporate re-engineering, risk, flexibility, networking, and short-term teamwork, where what matters is being able to reinvent yourself on a dime. In this timely and essential essay, Sennett enables us to understand the social and political context for our contemporary confusions, and he suggests how we need to re-imagine both community and individual character in order to confront an economy based on the principle of "no long term."

Full contents
  • 1. Drift: How personal character is attacked by the new capitalism
  • 2. Routine: An evil of the old capitalism
  • 3. Flexible: The restructuring of time
  • 4. Illegible: Why modern forms of labor are difficult to understand
  • 5. Risk: Why risk-taking has become disorienting and depressing
  • 6. The Work Ethic: How the work ethic has changed
  • 7. Failure: Coping with failure
  • 8. The Dangerous Pronoun: Community as a remedy for the ills of work.
 
Notes

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Subjects Working class - United States.  |  Work ethic - United States.  |  Labor - United States.

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    Members of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Maori communities are advised that this catalogue contains names and images of deceased people. All users of the catalogue should also be aware that certain words, terms or descriptions may be culturally sensitive and may be considered inappropriate today, but may have reflected the author's/creator's attitude or that of the period in which they were written.