Ulrich Beck

The Brave New World of Work (eBook, ePUB)

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

In this important book, Ulrich Beck - one of the leading social thinkers in Europe today - examines how work has become unstable in the modern world and presents a new vision for the future. Beck begins by describing how the traditional work society, with its life-long job paths, is giving way to a much less stable world in which skills can be suddenly devalued, jobs obliterated, welfare cover reduced or eliminated. The West would appear to be heading towards a social structure of ambiguity and multiple activity that has hitherto been more characteristic of the developing world. But what appears to be the end of traditional working practices can also be seen as an opportunity to develop new ideas and models for work in the twenty-first century. Beck's alternative vision is centred on the concept of active citizens democratically organized in local, and increasingly also regional or transnational, networks. Against the threat of social exclusion, everyone can and must have a right to be included in a new definition and distribution of work. This will involve constant movement between formal employment (with a major reduction in working hours) and forms of self-organized artistic, cultural and political 'civil labour', providing equal access to comprehensive social protection. The aim must be to turn insecurity around, so that it becomes a positive and enriching discontinuity of life. Drawing on his earlier work on risk and reflexive modernization, The Brave New World of Work is also closely linked to his studies on globalization and individualization. These processes are part of the same challenge upon which a politics of modernity must now base itself. Not only the future of work, but also the very survival of democracy and the welfare state will depend on the development of a newly committed and 'multi-active' transnational citizenship. This book will be of great interest to second- and third-year students in sociology, politics, geography and the social sciences generally. It will also appeal to a broader audience interested in the issues and debates surrounding the changing nature of work.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: John Wiley & Sons
• Seitenzahl: 208
• Erscheinungstermin: 5. November 2014
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780745694399
• Artikelnr.: 41826598

Autorenporträt

Ulrich Beck is Professor of Sociology at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich

Inhaltsangabe

1. The Brazilianization of the West: Two Scenarios, One Introduction.
2. The Antithesis to the Work Society.
3. The Transition from the First to the Second Modernity: Five Challenges.
4. The Future of Work and Its Scenarios: An Interim Balance-Sheet.
5. The Risk Regime: How the Work Society is Becoming Risk Society.
6. A Thousand Worlds of Insecure Work: Europe's Future Glimpsed in Brazil.
7. The Great Example? Work and Democracy in America.
8. Vision of the Future I: The Europe of Civic Labour.
9. Vision of the Future II: Postnational Civil Society.
Notes.
Select Bibliography.

Rezensionen

'With characteristic panache, Ulrich Beck has once again cutright through conventional economic and political language to makehis point. There is enough work to do for all, but the "worksociety" is gone. In the "second modernity" individuals define thepatterns of their lives themselves, and a "self-active civilsociety" has become possible. Ulrich Beck's new book makes even NewLabour look old and is thus bound to stimulate a lively debate.'Lord Dahrendorf, formerly Director of the London School ofEconomics

'Beck does it again - just as he challenged us in the 1990s toshift attention from capital to risk, now he calls on us to turnfrom paid work to civil labour in creating a postnationalcosmopolitan society. This is the kind of pace-setting radicalthinking necessary to keep up with the breakneck speed of change inthe Global Age. Yet, another bravura performance.' MartinAlbrow, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars,andUniversity of Surrey Roehampton

"Beck develops an intelligent andc well written alternativescenario to current models of work" Thomas Klikauer, Universityof western Sydney

'In a brief but compelling book, Beck details the problems andprospects for societies that remain trapped by an ideology focusedon work ... This well-written book raises important questions andchallenges dominant assumptions. It should be useful to a varietyof levels and disciplines.' Choice

'There is no shortage of books about the future of work. Thisone is well worth reading. It greatly extends and devlops Beck'sdiscussion of the "destandardization of labour" in his RiskSociety, and makes a contribution which is original, complex,subtle, wide-ranging ... always stimulating.' Work, Employmentand Society

'This book will be popular with non-academic audiences and willprove useful in getting students to think critically about thenature of society and the workplace' Progress in Human Geography26, 1