The 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 workplace—a “freedom” that came at the cost of material and psychological security. 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 left’s critique of the alienation of everyday life that simultaneously undermined their “social critique.”In this new edition, the two author reflect on the reception of the book and the debates it has stimulated.. 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. Via an unprecedented analysis of the latest management texts that have formed the

“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 wide-ranging, nuanced sociological inquiry into the nature of contemporary work.”—Choice“A vast and ambitious work, which is inscribed in a great tradition of theoretical and critical sociology.”—Le Monde“This magnificent book is the sociology of a whole generati

. 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.Gregory Elliott is a member of the editorial collective of Radical Philosophy and author of Althusser: The Detour of Theory