Utopia and Organization - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1405100729 ISBN 13: 9781405100724

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell, 2003

Synopsis

Using examples as diverse as train accidents, novels and gardening, this book evaluates the prospects for utopian thought and practice in the context of a world organized by market managerialism.

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• Asks if ideas about utopia are redundant.
  
• Evaluates the prospects for utopian thought and practice in a world organized by market managerialism.
  
• Treats utopia as an organizational issue, rather than focusing on literary or historical interpretations.
  
• Engages with ideas of utopia, dystopia and crypto-utopia, organization and management.
  
• Uses diverse examples, such as train accidents, novels and gardening to explore issues in novel and thought-provoking ways.

About this title

About the Author

Martin Parker is reader in social and organisational theory at the University of Keele. He holds degrees in anthropology and sociology from the Universities of Sussex, London and Staffordshire and previously taught sociology at Staffordshire. His writing is usually concerned with organisational theory and the sociology of culture but he engages in diettante dabbling in anything else that catches his eye. His recent books are Organisational Culture and Identity (Sage, 2000) and Against Management (Polity 2002) as well as the co-edited Science Fiction and Organisation (Routledge 2001) and The Age of Anxiety (Blackwell 2001).

From the Back Cover

Are ideas about utopia redundant? Is there any point in speculating about better alternatives to Western liberalism? This volume addresses these questions, evaluating the prospects for utopian thought and practice in a world organized by market managerialism.

The contributors to this book all treat utopia as an organizational matter. Rather than focusing on the literary, historical or political meaning of utopias, they see utopias as statements of alternative organization, attempts to put forward plans which remedy the shortcomings of a particular age. Using examples as diverse as train accidents, novels and gardening, they engage in a variety of novel and thought-provoking ways with issues of organization and disorganization, dystopia and crypto-utopia, management and anti-management.

The contributors to this book all treat utopia as an organizational matter. Rather than focusing on the literary, historical or political meaning of utopias, they see utopias as statements of alternative organization, attempts to put forward plans which remedy the shortcomings of a particular age. Using examples as diverse as train accidents, novels and gardening, they engage in a variety of novel and thought-provoking ways with issues of organization and disorganization, dystopia and crypto-utopia, management and anti-management.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1405100729
• ISBN 13: 9781405100724
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 200
• Editor: Parker Martin