ON BEING UNREASONABLE: Breaking the Rules and Making Things Better

Sedgman, Kirsty

ISBN 10: 057136683X / ISBN 13: 9780571366835

Published by Faber & Faber, London, 2023

About this Item

This copy is in new, unmarked condition bound in light blue paper covered boards with gloss black titling to the spine. This copy is bright, tight, white and square. The unclipped dust wrapper is in new condition. International postal rates are calculated on a book weighing 1 Kilo, in cases where the book weighs more than 1 Kilo increased postal rates will be quoted, where the book weighs less then postage will be reduced accordingly. We're living in an age of division. From abortion rights to immigration, gun control to climate change, civil debate has gone out the window. Manners, order, and respect are being eroded. Why can't we all be reasonable? The trouble is, what's 'reasonable' to one person is outrageous to another. Is it okay to let children play in the garden while others are working from home? To do your makeup on a train, or recline your seat on an aeroplane? What's the right way to breastfeed? To protect your neighbourhood? To protest against injustice and oppression? In a world where we all think we're being reasonable, how can we figure out what's right? Looking back through history and around the world, Kirsty Sedgman set out to discover how unfairness and discrimination got baked into our social norms, dividing us along lines of gender, class, disability, sexuality, race. Instead of measuring human behaviour against outdated standards of rules and reason, On Being Unreasonable argues that sometimes we need to act unreasonably to bring about positive change. Ref C 2.

Seller Inventory # 033452

Bibliographic Details

• Title: ON BEING UNREASONABLE: Breaking the Rules and Making Things Better
• Publisher: Faber & Faber, London
• Publication Date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 057136683X
• ISBN 13: 9780571366835
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: New
• Dust Jacket Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

A unified theory of reasonableness – and how to be unreasonable for the right reasons.

Manners, order and respect... these are all ideals we subscribe to. In opposed positions, we ought to be able to 'agree to disagree'. Today's world is built from structures of standards and reason, but it is imperative to ask who constructed these norms, and why. We are more divided than ever before-along lines of race, gender, class, disability-and it's time to question who benefits the most. What if our propensity to measure human behaviour against rules and reason is actually more problematic than it might seem?

Kirsty Sedgman shows how power dynamics and the social biases involved have resulted in a wide acceptance of what people should and shouldn't do, but they create discriminatory realities and amount to a societal façade that is dangerous for genuine social progress. From taking the knee to breastfeeding in public, from neighbourhood vigilantism to the Colston Four--and exploring ideas around ethics, justice, society, and equality along the way--Sedgman explores notions of civility throughout history up to now.

On Being Unreasonable mounts a vital and spirited defence of why and how being unreasonable can help improve the world. It examines and parses the pros and cons of our rules around reason, but leaves us with the rousing question: What if behaving unreasonably at times might be the best way to bring about meaningful change that is long overdue?

About the Author

An award-winning cultural studies scholar based at the University of Bristol, Dr Kirsty Sedgman publishes and speaks on art, media, participation, and cultural sociology. She is the author of numerous academic publications, including two monographs and an edited book on theatre fandom, and is Editor of the Routledge book series in Audience Research. Kirsty has also written for The Stage, Exeunt, and the BBC’s Expert Series, and her work has been featured in the Times Literary Supplement, the Guardian, and the New York Times. www.kirstysedgman.com @kirstysedgman