Capitalism and Social Progress: The Future of Society in a Global Economy

Why are America and Britain wealthier than ever but millions of children live in poverty, neighbourhoods want for basic amenities and the middle classes fear for their families, jobs and futures? The answer is not to be found in globalization, technological innovation, or our personal failings to adapt to changing circumstances as we are so often told. The answer lies mainly with the historical legacy of the 'golden era' and the obsession with market individualism. An obsession that the New Democrats in America and the New Labour in Britain have failed to exorcize. Yet the forces of knowledge-driven capitalism provide an unprecedented opportunity at the beginning of the twenty-first century to build societies based on the individual and collective intelligence of all. Capitalism and Social Progress shows how this can be achieved.

Table of Contents:
Foreword Acknowledgements Introduction PART I: ECONOMIC NATIONALISM The Secular Trinity The Engines of Growth Times The Adversities of Good Times The Manufacture of Intelligence The Affluent Consensus PART II: THE NEW REALITIES The New Global Competition Primitive Capitalism Downsizing the Corporation The Demise of Industrial Man A False Start PART III: THE FUTURE OF SOCIETY The Problem Restated Collective Intelligence The Learning State A High Skills Economy Conclusion Notes Index

Review :
'Many have tried to come to grips with the explosive impact of the new, deregulated globalizing capitalism on everything else, from family life to politics. Most have failed, simply because they have focuses on just one slice of life, missing the wider picture; Phillip Brown and Hugh Lauder have succeeded, because of their intellectual courage in embracing all of it - and it does not hurt that their book is so well written.' - Edward N. Luttwak 'a tour de force' - Joan Wills, Institute for Educational Leadership, Inc. 'This is a book that should be read and re-read on both sides of the Atlantic and throughout the industrial world'. - Kent H. Hughes, Public Policy Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Centre, former Associate Deputy Secretary of Commerce and President of the Council of Competitiveness 'an extremely stimulating and pathbreaking piece of work.' - David Ashton, Director of the Centre for Labour Market Studies, Leicester University '...an excellent and well-argued book and even if much of the account of post-Fordism is familiar, it knits together economic processes, politics and family life in challenging ways. Brown and Lauder's critique of the Third Way strategy on employment and education should be read by everyone concerned with higher education policy and practice.' - Larry Ray, Current Sociology