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Elsewhere, U.S.A.: How We Got From The Company Man, Family Dinners, And The Affluent Society To The Home Office, BlackBerry Moms, And Economic Anxiety (2009)

by Dalton Conley(Favorite Author)

3.17 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0375422900 (ISBN13: 9780375422904)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Pantheon

review 1: This is a pretty simple analysis of how modern capitalism functions: increased reliance on technology, precarity, lack of distinction between work and leisure, etc. The author focuses primarily on those in the higher income brackets (his own class bracket) where he says inequality and uncertainty are growing the fastest. While that argument isn't entirely convincing, some of the points he makes can be used to approach the economy more generally. Much of what he says has been said elsewhere in more detail and with more nuance, but this might do for folks looking for a simple and quick understanding of some of the shifts in capitalism in the past fifty or so years.
review 2: Elsewhere U.S.A. is a sociological inspection of recent trends in the worls of work, tech... morenology, and family and interpersonal life in the United States, particularly for people from upper and upper-middle classes.Conley is an engaging and accessible writer, and he is able to introduce fundamental sociological concepts from the classics (Marx, Weber, Durkheim) in straightforward language and with simple metaphors and examples.He develops new sociological concepts that are worth noting and thinking about such as the "elsewhere ethic", the "elsewhere class", the idea of "convestment", the "intravidual". The notion of "elsewhere" is understood as the subjective feeling that we are never where we are supposed to be, since technology and the changes in the world of work have reshaped our understanding of space.Unfortunately, Conley does not delve into the meaning of these concepts. He introduces then and then takes them as granted. He also relies too strongly on mainstream economics to think about society.Overall, the book has great potential, but I feel like it could have been taken much further and deeper. less

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