The New Spirit of Capitalism

Luc Boltanski; Eve Chiapello

ISBN 10: 1844671658 / ISBN 13: 9781844671656

Published by Verso, 2007

Former library book; May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G1844671658I4N10

Synopsis:

Why is the critique of capitalism so ineffective today? In this major work, the sociologists Eve Chiapello and Luc Boltanski suggest that we should be addressing the crisis of anticapitalist critique by exploring its very roots.
Via an unprecedented analysis of management texts which influenced the thinking of employers and contributed to reorganization of companies over the last decades, the authors trace the contours of a new spirit of capitalism. From the middle of the 1970s onwards, capitalism abandoned the hierarchical Fordist work structure and developed a new network-based form of organization which was founded on employee initiative and relative work autonomy, but at the cost of material and psychological security.
This new spirit of capitalism triumphed thanks to a remarkable recuperation of the "artistic critique"-that which, after May 1968, attacked the alienation of everyday life by capitalism and bureaucracy. At the same time, the "social critique" was disarmed by the appearance of neocapitalism and remained fixated on the old schemas of hierarchical production.
This book, remarkable for its scope and ambition, seeks to lay the basis for a revival of these two complementary critiques.

About the Authors: Eve Chiapello is an associate professor at the HEC School of Management, Paris. She is the author of Artistes versus Managers.

Luc Boltanski teaches sociology at the EHESS, Paris. He is the author of numerous books, including On Critique: A Sociology of Emancipation, The Making of a Class and The New Spirit of Capitalism.

Gregory Elliott is a member of the editorial collective of Radical Philosophy and author of Althusser: The Detour of Theory and Labourism and the English Genius: The Strange Decay of Labour England?.

Bibliographic Details

Title: The New Spirit of Capitalism
Publisher: Verso
Publication Date: 2007
Binding: Paperback
Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket