Knowing Capitalism

1. Auflage 2005
ISBN: 978-1-4129-0058-4
Verlag: Blue Rose Publishers

Buch, Englisch, 264 Seiten, Format (B × H): 168 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 503 g

Reihe: Published in association with Theory, Culture & Society

'This is an ambitious, original, and complex treatment of key aspects of contemporary capitalism. It makes a major contribution because it profoundly destabilizes the scholarship on globalization, the so-called new economy, information technology, distinct contemporary business cultures and practices'
- Saskia Sassen, author of Globalization and its Discontents


'Nigel Thrift offers us the sort of cultural analysis of global capitalism that has long been needed - one that emphasizes the innovative energy of global capitalism. The book avoids stale denouncements and offers instead a view of capitalism as a form of practice'
- Karin Knorr Cetina, Professor of Sociology, University of Konstanz, Germany



Capitalism is well known for producing a form of existence where `everything solid melts into air'. But what happens when capitalism develops theories about itself? Are we moving into a condition in which capitalism can be said to possess a brain?

These questions are pursued in this sparkling and thought-provoking book. Thrift looks at what he calls 'the cultural circuit of capitalism', the mechanism for generating new theories of capitalism. The book traces the rise of this circuit back to the 1960s when a series of institutions locked together to interrogate capitalism, to the present day, when these institutions are moving out to the Pacific basin and beyond. What have these theories produced? How have they been implicated in the speculative bubbles that characterized the late twentieth century? What part have they played in developing our understanding of human relations?

Building on an inter-disciplinary approach which embraces the core social sciences, Thrift outlines an exciting new theory for understanding capitalism. His book is of interest to readers in geography, social theory, anthropology and cultural economics.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Thrift, Nigel

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein Gesellschaftstheorie
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Wirtschaftssysteme, Wirtschaftsstrukturen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Adventures of Capitalism
The Cultural Circuit of Capitalism
PART ONE: THE CULTURAL CIRCUIT OF CAPITALISM
The Rise of Soft Capitalism
The Place of Complexity
Virtual Capitalism
The Globalization of Reflexive Business Knowledge
Cultures on the Brink - with Kris Olds
Re-Engineering the Soul of Capitalism on a Global Scale
PART TWO: THE NEW ECONOMY
'It's the Romance, Not the Finance, that Makes the Business Worth Pursuing'
Disclosing a New Market Culture
Performing Cultures in the New Economy
The Automatic Production of Space - with Shaun French
Closer to the Machine? Intelligent Environments, New Forms of Possession and the Rise of the Supertoy
Electric Animals
New Models of Everyday Life?
Remembering the Technological Unconscious by Foregrounding Knowledges of Postition

Über Autor(innen)

Thrift, Nigel
Nigel Thrift is a Visiting Professor in Oxford and Tsinghua Universities. He was previously Executive Director of Schwarzman Scholars, Vice-Chancellor at the University of Warwick and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at Oxford University.