The Values of the Enterprise Culture

The Moral Debate
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-041-43791-8
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 308 Seiten, Format (B × H): 138 mm x 216 mm

Reihe: Routledge Revivals

First published in 1992, The Values of the Enterprise Culture examines the moral implications of a cultural reform programme centered on reviving capitalist production, expanding individual freedom, dismantling the culture of dependency, and restoring personal responsibility. This book aims to deepen our understanding of fundamental issues that affect everyday lives—issues at the heart of heated public controversies yet requiring more rigorous and thoughtful analysis than public debate typically allows.

The contributors explore several critical questions: Can an ‘open’ market system that inevitably creates winners and losers, rich and poor, be considered morally defensible? Does the enterprise culture, with its selective promotion of certain ‘virtues’, genuinely cultivate moral individuals? Why have so many prominent religious figures opposed the enterprise culture? While enterprise culture is not a new phenomenon, the contributors demonstrate that it has become more firmly and expansively established than ever before.

This volume will be a valuable read for students and researchers of sociology, cultural studies, theology, religious studies, political science, and history.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Heelas, Paul

Morris, Paul

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Theologie
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Wirtschaftspolitik, politische Ökonomie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface 1. Enterprise culture: its values and value Part 1: Enterprise culture – then and now 2. Enterprise regained 3. The enterprise culture in historical perspective: birth, life, death – and resurrection? 4. The enterprise culture: old wine in new bottles? 5. Enterprise – towards the emancipation of a concept Part 2: The morality of enterprise values 6. Enterprise in its place: the moral limits of markets 7. Adam Ferguson’s critique of the ‘enterprise’ culture 8. The human impact of the market Part 3: The ethics of enterprising self 9. Governing the enterprising self 10. Enterprising kinship: consumer choice and the new reproductive technologies 11. The personal right to identity: a polemic on the self in the enterprise culture 12. Enterprise, omnipotence and dependency: a psychoanalytic approach to political culture Part 4: Religion and enterprise 13. The invisible hand: providence and the market 14. Critical reflections on Michael Novak’s The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism 15. Individual and community in religious critiques of the enterprise culture 16. Is God enterprising? Reflections on enterprise culture and religion