A Virtuous Circle: Political Communications in Postindustrial Societies (Communication, Society and Politics)
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • THE MYTH OF MEDIA-DRIVEN MALAISE
A Virtuous Circle: Political Communications in Postindustrial Societies (Communication, Society and Politics)
Pippa Norris
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

EconomicsEconomics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books | Agricultural | Commercial Policy | Comparative | Consolidation & Merger | Cooperatives | Debt & Deficits | Development & Growth | Econometrics | Economic Conditions | Economic History | Economic Policy & Development | Exports & Imports | Free Enterprise | Inflation | International | Labor & Industrial Relations | Macroeconomics | Microeconomics | Money & Monetary Policy | Natural Resources | Privatization | Public Finance | Statistics | Sustainable Development | Theory | Unemployment | Urban & Regional
GeneralGeneral | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
History & TheoryHistory & Theory | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Practical PoliticsPractical Politics | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
GeneralGeneral | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Media StudiesMedia Studies | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
All TitlesAll Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Business & InvestingBusiness & Investing | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
NonfictionNonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:
  1. Comparing Political Communication: Theories, Cases, and Challenges (Communication, Society and Politics) Comparing Political Communication: Theories, Cases, and Challenges (Communication, Society and Politics)
  2. Mediated Politics: Communication in the Future of Democracy (Communication, Society and Politics) Mediated Politics: Communication in the Future of Democracy (Communication, Society and Politics)
  3. Democratic Phoenix: Reinventing Political Activism Democratic Phoenix: Reinventing Political Activism
  4. Collective Preferences in Democratic Politics: Opinion Surveys and the Will of the People Collective Preferences in Democratic Politics: Opinion Surveys and the Will of the People
  5. Information and American Democracy: Technology in the Evolution of Political Power (Communication, Society and Politics) Information and American Democracy: Technology in the Evolution of Political Power (Communication, Society and Politics)

ASIN: 0521793645

Book Description

Is the process of political communications by the news media and by parties responsible for civic malaise? A Virtuous Circle sets out to challenge the conventional wisdom that it is. Based on a comparative examination of the role of the news media and parties in postindustrial societies, this study argues that rather than mistakenly "blaming the messenger" we need to understand and confront more deep-rooted flaws in the systems of representative democracy.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars THE MYTH OF MEDIA-DRIVEN MALAISE.......2000-09-26

Michael Schudson - Columbia Journalism Review Sept 2000 "Correlation is not causation." That is as basic a watchword for social science as "watch the ball" is for athletics. And it is the guiding principle that informs this important rethinking of the influence of news on our political culture.

There's more meat here than even author Pippa Norris has herself digested; the book is half social science analysis and half a statistical almanac. But this is to quibble. A Virtuous Circle is praiseworthy both for its sumptuous comparative statistics on the news media across European and North American democracies, and for its unflappable sanity and even ruddy hopefulness about the state of the media (but not necessarily the state of the world) today.

For Norris, media critics have failed to make their case that contemporary news practices harm the body politic. The evidence of "media malaise," that media and political communication today reduce civic activism, diminish trust in government, and retard knowledge of and interest in public affairs, has little empirical support. In fact, people who attend to news know more about politics than those who don't. They are as trusting of political institutions as those less attentive to news.

This is not exactly three cheers for the press, but it directly counters the views of many others -- including Norris's own distinguished colleague at Harvard's Shorenstein Center, Thomas Patterson (it makes you wonder what their faculty meetings are like).

In l993, Patterson published a widely noted book, Out of Order, that claimed that the U.S. news media had grown more negative and more cynical in political coverage over the past two or three decades, that this had matched a growing popular distrust of politicians and government and a general disengagement from civic life, and that -- although Patterson also knows that "correlation is not causation" -- cynicism in the news "has contributed to" cynicism in the electorate. Other scholars, journalists, and media reformers have endorsed a "the news-media-make-us-less-civic" hypothesis. A European version of this argument focuses more on the increasingly media-oriented electoral campaigns than on the news as such. In the European variant, American-style political packaging, media consultants, and emphasis on image over substance have produced a European "crisis of civic communication."

Well, Norris asks, in her "I call 'em as I see 'em" tone, what do the data tell us? As a comparative political scientist, a British transplant to the United States and a student of British as well as U.S. media and politics, she also suspects the American situation might look different when compared to other nations. If there is "media malaise," is it an American disease or a world epidemic?

Here's what she finds. In Europe since l970, the percentage of citizens of democracies who read a newspaper every day has grown by 67 percent. The percentage of people who watch television news daily has increased almost 50 percent. Even after taking education into account, European citizens who attend to news know more about politics as well as everyday social and health matters than those who do not. People attentive to news are no more, but no less, trusting and confident in government than the inattentive. People attentive to news are more likely to participate in politics through voting and other forms of participation. Looking specifically at news coverage of the European Union, Norris found a "Euroskeptic tone" in the newspapers and an even more negative tone in European TV news and she found this associated with public skepticism toward the euro and other features of the EU. But she resists drawing the conclusion that this is a case of the press influencing the public. Instead, she argues, the press takes its cues from party elites, interest groups, and the political culture at large; journalists are "players in a broader political culture" rather than outsiders independent of it.

In America, the media domain is very different, with lack of newspaper competition in most markets, the absence of the kind of strong tabloid readership that many European countries maintain, falling rather than rising newspaper sales, and the absence of a strong public-service broadcast sector. Does a "media malaise" hypothesis work better here? No. As in Europe, people who attend to the news are significantly more likely to participate in political campaigns by voting, contributing money, or discussing politics. It may be that watching hour after hour of entertainment television is a factor in disengaging Americans from political and civic life, but watching TV news is not. Norris does not find any relationship between increasing negativism in the news since the l980s and popular trust in governing institutions, which has risen, fallen, and risen again in this same period. She finds a decline in political interest, political trust, and voter turnout in the 1960s-early 1970s, but not a steady decline from the l960s to the present. Not only is correlation not causation -- we don't even have a good correlation.

The evidence for media-driven malaise just ain't there. The best evidence, in fact, goes in the other direction: that active, politically engaged people attend to the news more than others and that attending to the news reinforces them in their political involvement. This is the "virtuous" rather than "vicious" circle of her title. And in most respects she is utterly convincing.

This is a significant book. It is, to be sure, an academic's book. Although Norris writes clear and straightforward prose, she also gets caught up in the intricacies of academic argument and a range of data so vast that the general reader will have a tough time of it. But her conclusion is challenging: "A citizenry that is better informed and more highly educated, with higher cognitive skills and more sources of information, may well become increasingly critical of governing institutions, with declining affective loyalties towards traditional representative bodies such as parties and parliaments. But increasing criticism from citizens does not necessarily reduce civic engagement; indeed, it can have the contrary effect." In other words, the tenor of the times is more critical than it used to be, with uncertain consequences. Norris wants us to consider the possibility that critical citizens, committed to democratic values but unhappy with the performance of governmental institutions, are not cynical but wary. And vigilance can be a democratic virtue.

This is not to suggest, Norris cautions, that all's well in contemporary democracies. But blaming the news media for what ails us in political corruption, undernourished social services, and violent conflicts in some countries is to find a scapegoat, not a powerful source of our ills.

Michael Schudson is professor of communications and sociology at the University of California. His latest book is A Good Citizen: A History of American Civic Life.

===============================================================

UNCONVENTIONAL WISDOM

By Richard Morin Sunday, September 17, 2000; Page B05

The Myth of Media Malaise

For decades, it's been hugely fashionable in academe to finger the cynical and superficial news media as the cause of rising levels of civic disengagement.

Well, democracy may or may not be in eclipse, and people certainly don't trust politicians or vote nearly as often as they did a few decades ago. But don't blame the media, argues political scientist Pippa Norris in her new book "A Virtuous Circle: Political Communications in Postindustrial Societies."

Norris, a professor at Harvard, examined five decades of polling data from several major surveys conducted in the United States, as well as surveys conducted in Europe. Wherever she looked, Norris found that people who read newspapers or watch TV network news more frequently are generally more trusting, less cynical and more knowledgeable about politics and government--even after she controlled for their education, income, gender, age and other variables that shape political attitudes.

Rather than driving down political involvement and ratcheting up mistrust, Norris says that attention to the news "acts as a virtuous circle: The most politically knowledgeable, trusting and participatory are most likely to tune to public affairs coverage. And those most attentive to coverage of public affairs become more engaged in civic life."

Then who's responsible for creating the tattered image of the malaise-making news media? Blame it, at least in part, on the media themselves, which Norris says have become increasingly preoccupied with "self-flagellation."

The resulting false picture, she cautions, does real harm--but not to civic life. Rather, it erodes public confidence in the news media. Plus, it's so predictable. "American journalism seems increasingly transfixed by American journalism, looking at itself obs
The Racketeer's Progress: Chicago and the Struggle for the Modern American Economy, 19001940 (Cambridge Historical Studies in American Law and Society)
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Brilliant.
The Racketeer's Progress: Chicago and the Struggle for the Modern American Economy, 19001940 (Cambridge Historical Studies in American Law and Society)
Andrew Wender Cohen
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Economic HistoryEconomic History | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
GeneralGeneral | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
GeneralGeneral | 20th Century | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
IllinoisIllinois | State & Local | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
GeneralGeneral | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
Labor UnionsLabor Unions | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
All TitlesAll Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Business & InvestingBusiness & Investing | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
NonfictionNonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 052183466X

Book Description

A provocative study of law and its social context, this work explores the contingent origins of the modern American economy. It shows how craftsmen - teamsters, barbers, musicians, and others - violently governed commerce in Chicago through pickets, assaults, and bombings. These tradesmen forcefully contested the power of national corporations in their city. Their resistance shaped American law, heavily influencing the New Deal and federal criminal statutes. This book thus shows that American industrial policy resulted not from a "search for order," but from a brutal struggle for control.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Brilliant........2005-07-01

Finally, a definitive treatise on the subject. A must read. Kudos to Professor Cohen.
The Soul's Economy: Market Society and Selfhood in American Thought, 1820-1920
Average customer rating: Not rated
    The Soul's Economy: Market Society and Selfhood in American Thought, 1820-1920
    Jeffrey Sklansky
    Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback

    Economic HistoryEconomic History | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
    TheoryTheory | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
    GeneralGeneral | 19th Century | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
    GeneralGeneral | 20th Century | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
    GeneralGeneral | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
    Social Psychology & InteractionsSocial Psychology & Interactions | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
    GeneralGeneral | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
    GeneralGeneral | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
    All TitlesAll Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
    Business & InvestingBusiness & Investing | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
    NonfictionNonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
    Similar Items:
    1. Pragmatism and the Political Economy of Cultural Revolution, 1850-1940 (Cultural Studies of the United States) Pragmatism and the Political Economy of Cultural Revolution, 1850-1940 (Cultural Studies of the United States)
    2. Boats Against the Current Boats Against the Current
    3. Victorian America and the Civil War Victorian America and the Civil War
    4. Race, Citizenship, and Law in American Literature (Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture) Race, Citizenship, and Law in American Literature (Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture)
    5. American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman

    ASIN: 0807853984
    Release Date: 2001-12-09

    Book Description

    Tracing a seismic shift in American social thought, Jeffrey Sklansky offers a new synthesis of the intellectual transformation entailed in the rise of industrial capitalism.

    For a century after Independence, the dominant American understanding of selfhood and society came from the tradition of political economy, which defined freedom and equality in terms of ownership of the means of self-employment. However, the gradual demise of the household economy rendered proprietary independence an increasingly embattled ideal. Large landowners and industrialists claimed the right to rule as a privilege of their growing monopoly over productive resources, while dispossessed farmers and workers charged that a propertyless populace was incompatible with true liberty and democracy.

    Amid the widening class divide, nineteenth-century social theorists devised a new science of American society that came to be called "social psychology." The change Sklansky charts begins among Romantic writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller, continues through the polemics of political economists such as Henry George and William Graham Sumner, and culminates with the pioneers of modern American psychology and sociology such as William James and Charles Horton Cooley. Together, these writers reconceived freedom in terms of psychic self-expression instead of economic self-interest, and they redefined democracy in terms of cultural kinship rather than social compact.
    Yankee Don't Go Home!: Mexican Nationalism, American Business Culture, and the Shaping of Modern Mexico, 1920-1950 (The Luther Hartwell Hodges Series on Business, Society, and the State)
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      Yankee Don't Go Home!: Mexican Nationalism, American Business Culture, and the Shaping of Modern Mexico, 1920-1950 (The Luther Hartwell Hodges Series on Business, Society, and the State)
      Julio Moreno
      Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Paperback

      Economic HistoryEconomic History | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
      InternationalInternational | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
      GeneralGeneral | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
      MexicoMexico | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
      GeneralGeneral | 20th Century | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
      GeneralGeneral | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
      RelationsRelations | International | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
      NationalismNationalism | Movements | Political Science | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
      All TitlesAll Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
      Business & InvestingBusiness & Investing | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
      NonfictionNonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
      Similar Items:
      1. Rethinking American History in a Global Age Rethinking American History in a Global Age
      2. Global Community: The Role of International Organizations in the Making of the Contemporary World Global Community: The Role of International Organizations in the Making of the Contemporary World
      3. The American Enemy: The History of French Anti-Americanism The American Enemy: The History of French Anti-Americanism
      4. Confronting the American Dream: Nicaragua under U.S. Imperial Rule (American Encounters/Global Interactions) Confronting the American Dream: Nicaragua under U.S. Imperial Rule (American Encounters/Global Interactions)
      5. The Origins of Postmodernity The Origins of Postmodernity

      ASIN: 0807854786
      Release Date: 2007-01-17

      Book Description

      In the aftermath of the 1910 Mexican Revolution, Mexican and U.S. political leaders, business executives, and ordinary citizens shaped modern Mexico by making industrial capitalism the key to upward mobility into the middle class, material prosperity, and a new form of democracy-consumer democracy. Julio Moreno describes how Mexico's industrial capitalism between 1920 and 1950 shaped the country's national identity, contributed to Mexico's emergence as a modern nation-state, and transformed U.S.-Mexican relations.

      According to Moreno, government programs and incentives were central to legitimizing the postrevolutionary government as well as encouraging commercial growth. Moreover, Mexican nationalism and revolutionary rhetoric gave Mexicans the leverage to set the terms for U.S. businesses and diplomats anxious to court Mexico in the midst of the dual crises of the Great Depression and World War II. Diplomats like Nelson Rockefeller and corporations like Sears Roebuck achieved success by embracing Mexican culture in their marketing and diplomatic pitches, while those who disregarded Mexican traditions were slow to earn profits.

      Moreno also reveals how the rapid growth of industrial capitalism, urban economic displacement, and unease caused by World War II and its aftermath unleashed feelings of spiritual and moral decay among Mexicans that led to an antimodernist backlash by the end of the 1940s.
      The New Ruthless Economy: Work and Power in the Digital Age
      Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
      • Working Under the All-Seeing Eye
      • The Digital Age Catches Up.
      • Big Brother Is Watching
      • Wake-up call
      • Fresh perspective on the perils of the new economy
      The New Ruthless Economy: Work and Power in the Digital Age
      Simon Head
      Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Paperback

      WorkplaceWorkplace | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
      Economic ConditionsEconomic Conditions | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
      Labor & Industrial RelationsLabor & Industrial Relations | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
      GeneralGeneral | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
      MISMIS | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
      Economic ConditionsEconomic Conditions | International | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
      GeneralGeneral | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
      Labor & Industrial RelationsLabor & Industrial Relations | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
      GeneralGeneral | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
      CultureCulture | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
      GeneralGeneral | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
      Social AspectsSocial Aspects | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books
      Similar Items:
      1. Moral Mazes: The World of Corporate Managers Moral Mazes: The World of Corporate Managers
      2. Leading Change Leading Change
      3. Less Is More: How Great Companies Use Productivity Less Is More: How Great Companies Use Productivity
      4. Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths And Total Nonsense: Profiting From Evidence-Based Management Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths And Total Nonsense: Profiting From Evidence-Based Management
      5. The Information Society Reader (Routledge Student Readers) The Information Society Reader (Routledge Student Readers)

      ASIN: 0195179838

      Book Description

      In the great boom of the 1990s, top management's compensation soared, but the wages of most Americans barely grew at all. This wages stagnation has baffled experts, but in The New Ruthless Economy, Simon Head points to information technology as the prime cause of this growing wage disparity. Many economists, technologists and business consultants have predicted that IT would liberate the work force, bringing self-managed work teams and decentralized decision making. Head argues that the opposite has happened. Reengineering, a prime example of how business processes have been computerized, has instead simplified the work of middle and lower level employees, fenced them in with elaborate rules, and set up digital monitoring to make sure that the rules are obeyed. This is true even in such high-skill professions as medicine, where decision-making software in the hands of HMOs decides the length of a patient's stay in hospital and determines the treatments patients will or will not receive. In lower-skill jobs, such as in the call center industry, workers are subject to the indignity of scripting software that lays out the exact conversation, line by line, which agents must follow when speaking with customers. Head argues that these computer systems devalue a worker's experience and skill, and subject employees to a degree of supervision which is excessive and demeaning. The harsh and often unstable work regime of reengineering also undermines the security of employees and so weakens their bargaining power in the workplace. Drawing upon ten years of research visiting work places across America, ranging from medical offices to machine tool plants, Head offers dramatic insight into the impact of information technology on the quality of working life in the United States.

      Customer Reviews:

      5 out of 5 stars Working Under the All-Seeing Eye.......2006-12-19

      With Drucker`s Post Capitalist Society, I got the impression that production was the key to higher pay, but Head contradicts that notion saying that the American work force has been made more productive, but it still has not seen much of an increase in pay. A worker works harder and faster, but still gets paid about the same. Even white collar workers and highly skilled professionals are managed scientifically under Taylor's principles. There seems to be a spreading madness for higher production. It is dehumanizing to have to do tasks at a speed and manner that may not fit the personality and ability of the person doing the job. I suppose that increasing production may decrease the price of the product because of the increased supply due to higher production. This would lower the cost for the consumer who is also the worker, which would be a benefit.

      I can see why workers resisted Taylor's schemes to get them to be more productive. It is much more desirable for the workers to set the pace without having supervision, rather than having a supervisor tell you to speed up. Besides, not everyone works at the same pace, unless you force them to.

      Even health care has become a dehumanizing experience for patients as they too have to endure a managed care system geared toward production, rather than caring for the patient. It seems to be a very male-oriented philosophy to coldly concentrate only on production and beating out the less productive competition, as opposed to other values that could be emphasized.

      By increasing the productivity of workers, an employer reduces the labor cost of making the product, ultimately trimming down the number of people employed. With Taylorism, the worker participates in his own eventual replacement by suggesting ways to do the work more efficiently.

      Although there had been some talk of the increase of worker autonomy and empowerment with rise of Japanese auto production, actually management practiced a more refined Taylorism. Workers were both bored by simple tasks and stressed to keep up with the speed of the line. This decreased the quality of working life. Unions were unable to penetrate into Japanese run plants worldwide to attempt to slow down the line and give workers more power.

      It's amazing that the engineers of the Casepoint software thought that it would work. Customers who call in about equipment they don't understand are often rambling and incoherent. Such unpredictability would ruin such a system. You need to use the human computer to figure out such problems. No artificial computers have been created yet that would fix such problems.

      I agree with Reichheld that if you treat employees well and retain their loyalty and service, then the business runs much more smoothly and profitably, without having to resort to such immoral tactics as management by excessive and stressful monitoring. Management, employees, and customers benefit from having a humane work environment. Businesses should focus on this, rather on just production. Unfortunately, businesses often view their employees with contempt and think that they can be easily replaced. Businesses listen more to scientific managers, rather than to humane ones.

      With Head's review of scientific management, I get the impression that Taylor and his followers really do belong in the lowest parts of hell. But focusing on higher production is not a bad pursuit as long as it doesn't become the only goal.

      There are many problems with scientifically managed healthcare. Patients are "medical losses" in managed care; the term is used to describe the loss of profit when the patient cost the MCO to much money. Such patients are unprofitable clients to the reengineers following the principles of scientific management to try to reduce the cost of healthcare. The invasion of this philosophy into the healthcare system has not gone over well with doctors or patients. Patients don't want to be treated like products; doctors want to make their own decisions about the patient's care without having to go by the rigid guidelines of managed care. Because physicians are no longer making flexible decisions during the diagnosis of patients, medical errors are opening them up to lawsuits, which further increase the cost of healthcare. MCO's are more interested in making a profit, than merely holding down costs. Since there has been an increase of bureaucracy because of the contentious negotiations between doctors, hospitals, and HMO's, costs are increasing probably more so than they were before managed care. To bring costs down they must deny care to patients, particularly if they are unprofitable patients with severe and chronic health problems. This market solution to rising health care costs has not been that successful; the author suggests that all could be covered under nationalized health care. Drucker would probably object with the usual argument about people waiting years for a serious operation to be done under nationalized care.

      Although companies talk of employee empowerment with the advent of IT technologies, the opposite has actually occurred. There is a chance for empowerment, but not with the way the technology is being used now. The technology actually gets in the way of employees becoming more experienced at solving problems, which could lead to job satisfaction. While scientific management has had some success in manufacturing as far as higher production goes, it has not been successful in services that deal with humans, which requires more complexity and caring. There are other values that are more important than production in the services. Head disagrees with Drucker that higher production necessarily leads to higher wages. The fruits of increased productivity often go to the CEOs and shareholders, and senior managers, not employees.

      3 out of 5 stars The Digital Age Catches Up........2005-09-15

      The chronology of this book spans almost two centuries of American history. In 1824, John Hall achieved the automatic machining of metal components at the Harpers Ferry arsenal, and Hall's new methods were the ancestors of mass production and scientific management.

      By another convenient accident of history, one of the pivotal events in this narrative, the beginnings of mass production at Ford's Highland plant in 1913, stands near the midpoint. If time travel allowed us to look back from the perspective of 1913, we would see how Henry Ford and Fred Winslow Taylor pulled together the "technical and organizational achievements of the 19th century" and welded them into a productive machine of commanding power and efficiency.

      Looking forward from 1913, and with the advantage of hindsight, we can see how Ford's and Taylor's methods were elaborated by the technologies of the mid- and late 10th century, which will continue to shape today's U. S. A. economy. From their base in manufacturing, these methods have launched an invasion of the service economy in which eighty percent of Americans work.

      After I learned computer training at the Vo-Tech in Pulaski, I agreed that I could effectively work robotic computers. I never had the chance to show my stuff, but I did have various and sundry computer-entry jobs in different factories. It was, for me, the Alpha and Omega -- the beginning and the End.

      Is it possible for humans to be programmed like machines? Like in the movie, ROBOTS, and 'The Island,' it is likely that some sort of robotic entity will exist in our near future. Simon Head puts doubts on our "illusions about information technology and argues that everyone loses when corporations try to use technology to conquer human nature." We all know that machines have no minds (like the two city of Knoxville representatives at yesterday's TPO meeting) and can never have the ability to think and feel on their own. Computers do as they are told or programmed, which is good. Humans need to always be in control.

      5 out of 5 stars Big Brother Is Watching.......2004-04-12

      The New Ruthless Economy by Simon Head is a somber, thought provoking examination of how the American workforce has been dehumanized over the past decade. The widespread use of Information Technology in business was predicted to decentralize decision-making and empower employees through greater team efficiency. The reality of IT is an aggressive return to Taylorism and assembly-line routine and controls that migrated from manufacturing to service industries.

      During the 1990?s, wages of top management went through the roof but the average American worker realized little, if any, increase at all. The New Ruthless Economy explores contributing factors to the inequality of wages, loss of job security and weakened bargaining power in the American workforce.

      Simon Head drew his conclusions based upon ten years of research across industry lines and geographic boundaries. He discovered that in the name of efficiency, businesses have established highly structured rules, computerized their processes and then implemented technology to ensure these rules were strictly adhered to al? George Orwell.

      The author provides concrete examples ranging from software implemented by HMOs that determine a patient?s length of care and treatment to the computer scripting used in call centers for wide-range solicitation. Use of these systems once again separates decision-making from the worker. It devalues an employee?s education, training and experience while subjecting them to excessively close supervision and monitoring.

      Head also points to the ?lean production? and ?ERP? (enterprise resource planning) practices that prompted wholesale layoffs in the early to mid 1990?s. Not only did these systems reduce the skill levels of employees but they also significantly increased the level of worker scrutinization. Head explores the relationship between Information Technology and Scientific Management and concludes his book with a discussion of ?the economics of unfairness? where both the National Labor Review Board and employee privacy rights take major hits at the waterline. The New Ruthless Economy takes a look backward and forward where the view for American labor is equally disappointing.

      5 out of 5 stars Wake-up call.......2004-03-21

      Head picks three areas to primarily study in his New Ruthless Economy: autos, health care and call centers, but the first part of the book is devoted to an excellent review of the basic tenets of scientific management as originally envisaged by the engineer Frederick Taylor, and his lesser-known counterpart in office management, William Leffingwell. Armed with this knowledge, the reader can easily trace developments in the last fifty years or so.

      As Head points out, the overall effect of the extension of these principles, especially combined with the vast electronic monitoring provided by recent advances in IT, is the overall dumbing-down of the worker, regardless of inherent or potential skills. The study of Toyota auto plants in Japan and other countries is particularly distressing, and one can easily see that it is only the influence of unions that has slowed down the treadmill. The situation with regard to call centers is appalling: truly the workers there are exploited ruthlessly. One wonders if in the offshoring of American jobs in the service sector, eventually the same massive turnover numbers will appear in developing countries.

      Head, in my opinion, saves the best till last?managed care organizations. Here, as one reads both figures rarely published, research findings, and case studies, it becomes all too obvious that MCOs are an absolute disaster. Why are health care costs going up? It?s all here in simple terms. Just this section of the book is worth reading alone if one is worried about health care in America.

      ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), CRM (Customer Resource Management) and a host of other business areas literally reorganized by giant software programs (SAP R/3, for example), are also discussed, and viewed as boondoggles that rarely achieve any desired goals.

      The overall trends discussed in this well-written book should frighten both management and employees, and it is unfortunate that the latter so often buy into the consultants? ill-advised mantras.

      5 out of 5 stars Fresh perspective on the perils of the new economy.......2003-10-15

      This provocative book exposes the dark side of IT productivity gains, in which workers in service sectors such as medicine are being transformed into cogs on an assembly line. Ironically, just when industrial assembly line workers have been empowered to take responsibility for the overall quality of the products, the workers in areas where judgment once reigned supreme find themselves extruded through routines-- what to do, what to say-- that make central planning seem creative. The initial productivity gains are apt to disappear, Head suggests, just as they did in old assembly lines, as numb minds produce bad products.
      Manufacturing Revolution: The Intellectual Origins of Early American Industry (Studies in Early American Economy and Society from the Library Company of ... from the Library Company of Philadelphia)
      Average customer rating: Not rated
        Manufacturing Revolution: The Intellectual Origins of Early American Industry (Studies in Early American Economy and Society from the Library Company of ... from the Library Company of Philadelphia)
        Lawrence A. Peskin
        Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Hardcover

        Economic HistoryEconomic History | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
        GeneralGeneral | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
        GeneralGeneral | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
        Production & OperationsProduction & Operations | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
        GeneralGeneral | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
        AntebellumAntebellum | 19th Century | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
        GeneralGeneral | 19th Century | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
        GeneralGeneral | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
        GeneralGeneral | Colonial Period | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
        ManufacturingManufacturing | Industrial, Manufacturing & Operational Systems | Engineering | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
        All TitlesAll Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
        Business & InvestingBusiness & Investing | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
        ProfessionalProfessional | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
        ASIN: 080187324X

        Book Description

        Lawrence A. Peskin argues that, in accounting for American industrialization, students of the phenomenon have focused mistakenly on large forces and theoretical constructs and on New England and the rise of factories as such. What, he asks, of the ordinary people who considered making things and building shops or small factories to meet the demand they saw? What of the groups and associations that tried to build public support for economic independence from the mother country? "Manufacturing Revolution" explores discussions originating in the Revolutionary era and the course of manufacturing itself-the many years of trial and error, risk and failure, in many places across the early republic. Peskin thus provides a detailed look at labor relations, entrepreneurship, and methods of promoting and financing manufactures. He finds that various social layers had mutual interests and influences; no particular core of business leaders, rising entrepreneurial artisans, or wage laborers alone account for the emergence of manufacturing. The work builds on solid research in both manuscript sources and printed texts from the period between 1750 and 1820. Audience: Historians of the early republic; economic historians; students of technology, business, and industry
        Technology, Culture and Competitiveness: Change and the World Political Economy (Technology & Global Political Economy)
        Average customer rating: Not rated
          Technology, Culture and Competitiveness: Change and the World Political Economy (Technology & Global Political Economy)
          M. Talalay
          Manufacturer: Routledge
          ProductGroup: Book
          Binding: Paperback

          EconomicsEconomics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books | Agricultural | Commercial Policy | Comparative | Consolidation & Merger | Cooperatives | Debt & Deficits | Development & Growth | Econometrics | Economic Conditions | Economic History | Economic Policy & Development | Exports & Imports | Free Enterprise | Inflation | International | Labor & Industrial Relations | Macroeconomics | Microeconomics | Money & Monetary Policy | Natural Resources | Privatization | Public Finance | Statistics | Sustainable Development | Theory | Unemployment | Urban & Regional
          GeneralGeneral | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
          MISMIS | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
          GeneralGeneral | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
          Manager's Guides to ComputingManager's Guides to Computing | Business & Culture | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
          GeneralGeneral | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
          RelationsRelations | International | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
          GeneralGeneral | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
          CultureCulture | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
          Technology & SocietyTechnology & Society | Communication | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
          Industrial TechnologyIndustrial Technology | Industrial, Manufacturing & Operational Systems | Engineering | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
          All TitlesAll Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
          ASIN: 0415142555

          Book Description

          The first volume in a major series, Technology, Culture and Competitiveness will be an essential read for all those who need to deal with the causes and consequences of rapid technological change in an increasingly globalized world, whether they be government policy-makers, managers of multi-national corporations, commentators on the international scene or specialists in and students of international politics, economics and business studies. The authors discuss three related areas: how we think about technology and international relations/international political economy; in what sense technology is a fundamental component of national competitive advantage and what national, local and corporate policy should be in light of this; and what the relationship is between technological innovation and global and political economics change.

          Technology is discussed not just in an instrumental sense-- as a tool of power and an object of policy--but equally in a transcendental sense--as a key to shaping and structuring how we understand and interpret reality. The final section of the book presents case studies of three core sectors of the world--political economy, finance, aviation and automobiles.

          State Corporatism and Proto-Industry: The Württemberg Black Forest, 15801797 (Cambridge Studies in Population, Economy and Society in Past Time)
          Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
          • Finally! Something new and interesting about proto-industry!
          • A must read about early modern European history
          State Corporatism and Proto-Industry: The Württemberg Black Forest, 15801797 (Cambridge Studies in Population, Economy and Society in Past Time)
          Sheilagh C. Ogilvie
          Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
          ProductGroup: Book
          Binding: Hardcover

          Job Hunting & CareersJob Hunting & Careers | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books | General | Guides | Interviewing | Job Hunting | Job Markets & Advice | Resumes | Vocational Guidance | Volunteer Work
          Labor & Industrial RelationsLabor & Industrial Relations | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
          GeneralGeneral | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
          Production & OperationsProduction & Operations | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
          GeneralGeneral | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
          GeneralGeneral | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
          GeneralGeneral | Germany | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
          Labor & Industrial RelationsLabor & Industrial Relations | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
          EuropeEurope | History | Humanities | New & Used Textbooks | Stores | Books
          GeneralGeneral | History | Humanities | New & Used Textbooks | Stores | Books
          GeneralGeneral | Political Science | Social Sciences | New & Used Textbooks | Stores | Books
          InternationalInternational | Political Science | Social Sciences | New & Used Textbooks | Stores | Books
          GeneralGeneral | Business & Finance | New & Used Textbooks | Stores | Books
          ASIN: 0521372097

          Book Description

          State Corporatism and Proto-Industry focuses on the WÜrttemberg worsted industry, an example of a "proto-industry" that arose in many parts of Europe preceding factory industrialization. It has been argued that these proto-industries broke down traditional society but this book suggests otherwise. With the help of the state, corporate institutions such as merchant companies and rural guilds, regulated every aspect of rural life and thus profoundly shaped early modern European economic, demographic and social development.

          Customer Reviews:

          5 out of 5 stars Finally! Something new and interesting about proto-industry!.......2000-07-20

          Proto-industry attracted a lot of attention in the 1970-80's. Soon, however this line of research about early modern European social and economic history came to consist of a confusing plethora of disparate case studies, that lacked any coherence and theoretical underpinning, although all writers used the term proto-industry. Finally, however, there is this great book, that provides a unified, and thoughtful analysis, not only of the concept 'proto-industry', but also provides an excellent empirical study of a proto-industrial region in Germany. This is not yet another descriptive study about 'proto-industry', paying only lip service to the original literature. If you are to read one book about what is called 'proto-industry' this is it. The book is well structured, the arguments clearly put, and frankly, this is the book, that finally will turn the proto-industrial debate into an interesting conversation about early modern European economic development. Read and enjoy!

          5 out of 5 stars A must read about early modern European history.......2000-07-07

          In this book, Sheilagh Ogilvie combines painstaking empirical research about a small region in Germany, with a lucid application of economic theory, to a field of social history that hasn't seen much progress since the early 1980's. This book is a model of clarity, and of interest not only to students of early modern Europe, but to anyone interested in how institutions constrain human behavior. While the empirical part is based on a case study, Ogilvie spells out the larger implications for economic development in early modern Europe, based on the concept of 'State-corporatism', i.e., the symbiotic relationship between the state and privileged groups, e.g., guilds and local communities. She discusses the role of institutions, mentalities and the impact of early modern institutions on economic development. This is a must read for anyone interested in early modern European history and should be of interest not only to social historians, but also to economists interested in empirical studies of how institutions affect human behavior, past and present.
          Britain: Society, Economy and Industrial Relations 1900-39 (Access to History)
          Average customer rating: Not rated
            Britain: Society, Economy and Industrial Relations 1900-39 (Access to History)
            R. D. Pearce
            Manufacturer: Hodder Murray
            ProductGroup: Book
            Binding: Paperback

            EuropeEurope | History & Historical Fiction | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
            GeneralGeneral | World | History | Subjects | Books
            GeneralGeneral | England | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
            19th Century19th Century | England | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
            GeneralGeneral | Ireland | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
            Social HistorySocial History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books
            GeneralGeneral | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
            GeneralGeneral | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
            ASIN: 0340845813
            Business, Government, Society: The Global Political Economy
            Average customer rating: Not rated
              Business, Government, Society: The Global Political Economy
              Arthur A. Goldsmith
              Manufacturer: South-Western Pub
              ProductGroup: Book
              Binding: Paperback

              InternationalInternational | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
              Labor & Industrial RelationsLabor & Industrial Relations | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
              GeneralGeneral | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
              Labor & Industrial RelationsLabor & Industrial Relations | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
              Similar Items:
              1. Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate--The Essential Guide for Progressives Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate--The Essential Guide for Progressives
              2. When Corporations Rule the World When Corporations Rule the World
              3. Managing Cultural Differences: Strategies for Competitive Advantage (The Eiu Series) Managing Cultural Differences: Strategies for Competitive Advantage (The Eiu Series)

              ASIN: 0759388911

              Book Description

              In Business, Government, and Society, Goldsmith has given us thorough coverage of the whole public policy process. He emphasizes the relationship of public policy and the business environment to reveal how government actions touch upon almost every decision taken by managers.. His approach to this topic reflects the latest AACSB guidelines: Students will be exposed to ethical and global issues; the influence of political, social, regulatory, environmental, and technological challenges, and the impact of the demographic diversity of organizations.

              Books:

              1. Administrative Assistant's and Secretary's Handbook
              2. An Introduction to Systems Biology: Design Principles of Biological Circuits (C&H/CRC Mathematical & Computational Biology Series)
              3. Applied Strategic Planning: How to Develop a Plan That Really Works
              4. Artificial Intelligence: Structures and Strategies for Complex Problem Solving (5th Edition)
              5. Baseball America 2007 Prospect Handbook: The Comprehensive Guide to Rising Stars from the Definitive Source on Prospects (Baseball America Prospect Handbook)
              6. Better Than Good: Creating a Life You Can't Wait to Live
              7. Blackwell Encyclopedia of Management
              8. Bold Moves: Jump to Outstanding Self-Managed Action!
              9. Business, Government and Society: A Managerial Perspective
              10. Business Process Management: Practical Guidelines to Successful Implementations

              Books Index

              Books Home

              Recommended Books

              1. Managing a Consumer Lending Business
              2. Concrete Countertops: Design, Form, and Finishes for the New Kitchen and Bath
              3. The Dinosaur Filmography
              4. The Mystic in the Theatre: Eleonora Duse
              5. Twister On Tuesday
              6. Christine Falls: A Novel
              7. A Pocket Field Guide to the Plants and Animals of Mount Rainier
              8. Mastering Risk Volume 1: Concepts
              9. Taming the Paper Tiger at Work
              10. The Wire: Truth Be Told