Together: The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Cooperation - Softcover

Richard Sennett

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141022108 ISBN 13: 9780141022109

Publisher: Penguin, 2013

Synopsis

Living with people who differ - racially, ethnically, religiously, or economically - is one of the most difficult challenges facing us today. Though our society is becoming ever more complicated materially, we tend to avoid engaging with people unlike ourselves. Modern politics emphasizes unity and similarity, encouraging the politics of the tribe rather than of complexity. Together: The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Co-operation explores why this has happened and what might be done about it. Sennett argues that living with people unlike ourselves requires more than goodwill: it requires skill. The foundations for skillful co-operation lie in learning to listen well and to discuss rather than debate. People who develop these capacities earn a reward: they can take pleasure in the company of others. Together traces the evolution of cooperative rituals in medieval churches and guilds, Renaissance workshops and courts, early modern laboratories and diplomatic embassies. In our lives today, it explains the trials and prospects of cooperation online, face-to-face in ethnic conflicts, among financial workers and community organizers. Exploring the nature of cooperation, why it has become weak, and how it could be strengthened, this visionary book offers a new way of seeing how humans can live together.

About this title

Book Description:

The highly respected author of The Craftsman now explores how we can create a better society by learning to truly listen and cooperate with others, even when our interests are conflicting.

About the Author:

Richard Sennett was founder director of the New York Institute for the Humanities, and is now University Professor at New York University. He has previously won the Amalfi and Ebert prizes for sociology and in 2010 was awarded the Spinoza Prize for outstanding contributions to public debate on ethics and morality. Together forms part of a three-book project on 'homo faber, 'focusing on the skills human beings possess to make a life together;the first volume of this large project, The Craftsman, was published in 2008. He is the author of many celebrated books including The Fall of Public Man, Flesh and Stone and The Corrosion of Character.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0141022108
• ISBN 13: 9780141022109
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336