The New Spirit of Capitalism

(Paperback)

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In this major work, sociologists Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello go to the heart of the changes in contemporary capitalism. Via an unprecedented analysis of the latest management texts that have formed the thinking of employers in their reorganization of business, the authors trace the contours of a new spirit of capitalism. They argue that from the middle of the 1970s onwards, capitalism abandoned the hierarchical Fordist work structure and developed a new network-based form of organization that was founded on employee initiative and autonomy in the workplacea freedom that came at the cost of material and psychological security. The authors connect this new spirit with the children of the libertarian and romantic currents of the late 1960s (as epitomised by dressed-down, cool capitalists such as Bill Gates and Ben and Jerry) arguing that they practice a more successful and subtle-form of exploitation. Now a classic work charting the sociological structure of neoliberalism, Boltanski and Chiapello show how the new spirit triumphed thanks to a remarkable recuperation of the lefts critique of the alienation of everyday life that simultaneously undermined their social critique. In this new edition, the two authors reflect on the reception of the book and the debates it has stimulated.

Reviews

A monumental work ... it has become a key reference point in many discussions of the culture of contemporary capitalism and the politics of neoliberalism. -- Jeremy Gilbert, author of Common Ground
This massive book is an astonishing combination - an ideological and cultural analysis, a socio-historical narrative, an essay in political economy, and a bold piece of engaged advocacy ... a dizzying theoretical tour. * New Left Review *
A wonderful book. -- William Davies, author of The Happiness Industry
Ambitious and fascinating. * Le Nouvel Observateur *
This book will no doubt come to be regarded as a contemporary classic of political economy and political sociology. * Political Studies Review *
This magnificent book is the sociology of a whole generation which capitalism caught on the wrong foot. In more than 800 pages which one devours like a great novel, the book furnishes new weapons for the renewal of the Left. * Libration *
A vast and ambitious work, which is inscribed in a great tradition of theoretical and critical sociology. * Le Monde *
A wide-ranging, nuanced sociological inquiry into the nature of contemporary work. * Choice *

Author Bio

Luc Boltanski teaches sociology at the EHESS, Paris. He is the author of numerous books, including The Making of a Class and The New Spirit of Capitalism. Eve Chiapello is an associate professor at the HEC School of Management, Paris. She is the author of Artistes versus Managers.