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The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism by Richard Sennett

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An exploration of the effects of the new capitalism explains the social and political context for today's personal confusions and offers suggestions for how to reimagine community and individual character in order to cope with a no long term economy. 10,000 first printing. Editorial Reviews Amazon.com Review In the brave new world of the flexible corporation, Richard Sennett observes, workers at all levels are regarded as wholly disposable, and they have responded in kind, ceasing to think in terms of any long-term relationship with the organizations they work for. This, he argues, has tremendous negative consequences for workers' emotional and psychological well-being. Even in menial jobs, we extract much of our self-image from the idea of a career--a life narrative rendered intelligible by specific loyalties, which is to some degree self-invented but also in some respects predictable. Innovations like flextime and bureaucratic de-layering seem to promise more freedom to define one's career, but in fact they create jobs in which there's less freedom than ever to be had. The Corrosion of Character is a short, anecdotal book, and while one might wish that it included a discussion of the social and psychological costs of the sheer increase of work time in the average worker's week, Sennett has created a pithy, disturbing picture of the cost of the corporate world's much-vaunted new efficiencies. --Richard Farr From Publishers Weekly The American company today ostensibly offers a more humane environment than in the era of Fordism, when work on the assembly line had a deadening, routine character. However, Sennett, professor of sociology at New York University and the London School of Economics, believes this improvement is illusory. His argument is that the modern workplaceAwith its emphasis on short-term, episodic labor; projects and flexibilityAdoes not allow people to shape their experiences or build a coherent narrative of their lives. Most important, the new adaptability in business militates against the formation of character. Character depends on stability for virtues such as loyalty, trust, commitment and mutual helpfulness to develop. And rather than giving workers greater freedom, the flexibility model allows another kind of power to be imposed from the top: from 1980 to 1995, between 13 million and 39 million workers became unemployed owing to downsizing. Even flextime contributes to the fragmentation and disorder, and teamwork only emphasizes mutual responsiveness rather than personal validation. Sennett makes his case in well-crafted prose with references not just to luminaries such as Adam Smith, Diderot, Nietzsche and Rousseau, but to the immediate experiences of blue-collar workers and folks in bakery shops and bars. He challenges the reader to decide whether the flexibility of modern capitalism offers a better context for personal growth or is merely a fresh form of oppression. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal From a writer with great credentials (New York University and the London School of Economics). Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. Review As compelling as fiction, keenly observant and written with grace and passion, The Corrosion of Character is megatrends plus morality. Yet it is all based on hard analysis, with statistical tables at the back....[U]rgent reading for anyone who would understand the world today. Though we are all connoisseurs of chaos now, we need, more than we know, Sennett's voice of passionate reason. -- Providence Sunday Journal, Tom D'Evelyn, 17 January 1999 It makes you think. The Corrosion of Character is one of the rare, rich books that compels you to think, that sets off genuine intellectual repercussions. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Hal Crowther, 21 February 1999 Richard Sennett is an unusual writer. He has always brought to his topics a combination of broad historical and literary learning and a reporter's willingness to walk into a store or factory, strike up a conversation and write down what he hears. -- The New York Times Book Review, Alan Ehrenhalt Richard Sennett's new book The Corrosion of Character is well worth $23.95...I'll bet this book will ring a bell with a lot of people. -- Paper Age, Jack O'Brien, February 1999 Sennett has his fingertips on the pulse of people talking about the workplace in boots, on Web sites, and in national symposiums. This is a compassionate inspection of the times and an essential read for people concerned with business and culture. -- Christian Science Monitor, Kenneth Rapoza, 11 February 1999 Sennett's The Corrosion of Character is substantial and serious, and many will find disturbing his assessment of the personal costs of flexible employment. -- The Age, Australia, 10 April 1999 The topic here is the effect of current economic changes on the conditions of work in America. The treatment is thoughtful, blessedly free of sociological jargon and animated by warm human sympathy. -- The Wall Street Journal, Peter L. Berger From the Publisher The Corrosion of Character was named one of the Top Ten Books of 1998 by Business Week magazine.
Publication Details

Title: The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism

Author(s):

  • Richard Sennett

Illustrator:

Binding: Hardcover

Published by: W W Norton & Co Inc: , 1998

Edition:

ISBN: 9780393046786 | 0393046788

176 pages. 5.75 x 1 x 8.75 inches

  • ENG- English
Book Condition: Very Good
2028r

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