Selling the Work Ethic: From Puritan Pulpit to Corporate Pr - Couverture souple

Beder, Sharon

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1856498859 ISBN 13 : 9781856498852

Editeur : Zed Books Ltd, 2001

Synopsis

Work and production have become ends in themselves. Material affluence is accompanied by increasing levels of stress, insecurity, depression, crime, and drug taking. Escalating production and consumption are destroying the environment on which life itself depends. Yet people are so concerned to keep their jobs that they are willing to do what their employers require of them even if they believe it is wrong or environmentally destructive. The social benefit of having the majority of able-bodied people in a society working hard all week goes unquestioned, particularly by those who work hardest. Few people today can imagine a society that does not revolve around work. How did paid work come to be so central to our lives? Why is it that so many people wouldn't know what to do with themselves or who they were if they did not have their jobs? In this major new book, Sharon Beder unearths the origins and the practices of a triumphant culture of work in which the wealthy are respected and inequality is justified. Dr Beder shows that these values are neither natural nor inevitable. They have been actively promoted -- through religious preaching, corporate propaganda, the education system, and socialisation -- by those who benefit most from them. Selling The Work Ethic provides an absorbing account and critique of this central aspect of modern capitalist society. Prompted by her conviction that humanity needs to unlearn and change these powerfully held but now pathological values if we are to reverse the declining quality of life in industrial society, Dr Beder illuminates the impasse we are now in.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Dr Sharon Beder is associate professor in the Science, Technology and Society programme of the University of Wollongong. After several years as a professional engineer, she returned to academic life. The posts she has held include being a director of the Earth Foundation Australia and President of the Society for Social Responsibility in Engineering. Her books include: Toxic Fish and Sewer Surfing (1989) The Nature of Sustainable Development (1993 and 1996) Global Spin: The Corporate Assault on Environmentalism (1997 and 2000) The New Engineer: Management and Professional Responsibility in a Changing World (1998).

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Zed Books Ltd
• Date d'édition: 2001
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1856498859
• ISBN 13: 9781856498852
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 304
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible