Suchergebnisse
"Peter Streckeisen"
Titel: Knowledge Society or Contemporary Capitalism's Fanciest Dress
Autor: Peter Streckeisen
Seite: 181-197
Abstract: Scholars of social science have increasingly been describing advanced capitalist societies as knowledge societies, based on a series of key assumptions about ’post-industrialism’. My contribution challenges this new ’conventional wisdom’ (John K. Galbraith) on several points. I first argue that it veils the ’dark sides’ of capitalism, i.e. worker alienation, class relationships and class struggle. I then show how knowledge society experts all too often contribute to the individualization of social problems. Further on, I challenge the assumption according to which contemporary human resources management creates a new kind of work relationship based on mutual respect, objectivity and justice. Finally, I try to understand the very success of the new ’conventional wisdom’. The relative autonomy of science and education might be the most important reason why so many social science scholars as well as ordinary people today believe they are living in a knowledge society.
Work and Social Justice
2009 (31) Heft 1
Guest-Editor: Carsten Köllmann
Editorial
The labour market is among the most contested fields of political argument and conflict in our time. Public criticism of increasing wage inequalities and especially of excessive management pay is, notwithstanding its popularity, only a symptom of more fundamental changes going on in the labour market and in society at large. The conditions and the very meaning of work rank high on the agenda of Western societies. Persistent mass unemployment, coupled with an increasing number of working poor, co...