William Davies, “The Happiness Industry: How the Government and Big Business Sold Us Well-Being” (Verso, 2015)

William Davies, “The Happiness Industry: How the Government and Big Business Sold Us Well-Being” (Verso, 2015)

Are you happy? In his new book The Happiness Industry: How the Government and Big Business Sold Us Well-Being (Verso, 2015), William Davies, a senior lecturer at Goldsmiths’ College, University of London, critically investigates this question. The book offers skepticism towardsthe demand that economy and society be happy, skepticism founded in an interrogation of the practices of contemporary government and businesses. A whole range of our everyday experiences, including ‘nudges’ for citizens and staff, the perverse incentives of metrics, through tothe consequences of how psychiatry classifies depression, are subject to critical scrutiny.Moreover, the book acts as a primer on economics, psychology and organizational theory, clearly articulating the roots and the consequences of our current economic and social settlement. The book concludes with the possibility of a more democratic way of organizing the world, in contrast to our impersonal, oppressive, and data driven present. Dr Davies is a co-director of Goldsmiths’ Political Economy Research Centre and blogs at Potlatch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/critical-theory

Jaksot(2153)

Elizabeth Anne Davis, "The Time of the Cannibals: On Conspiracy Theory and Context" (Fordham UP, 2024)

Elizabeth Anne Davis, "The Time of the Cannibals: On Conspiracy Theory and Context" (Fordham UP, 2024)

In 2009, the body of a former president of the Republic of Cyprus, Tassos Papadopoulos, was stolen from his grave. The Time of the Cannibals reconsiders this history and the public discourse on it to ...

25 Marras 20251h 30min

Piotr Nowak, "After Jews: Essays on Political Theology, Shoah and the End of Man" (Anthem Press, 2025)

Piotr Nowak, "After Jews: Essays on Political Theology, Shoah and the End of Man" (Anthem Press, 2025)

After Jews: Essays on Political Theology, Shoah and the End of Man (Anthem Press, 2025) is an attempt to describe and critically interpret the condition of man living in the shadow of the Shoah, in th...

25 Marras 20251h 6min

Amy Hughes, "An Actor's Tale: Theater, Culture, and Everyday Life in the Nineteenth-Century United States" (U Michigan Press, 2025)

Amy Hughes, "An Actor's Tale: Theater, Culture, and Everyday Life in the Nineteenth-Century United States" (U Michigan Press, 2025)

Harry Watkins was no one special. During a career that spanned four decades, this nineteenth-century actor yearned for fame but merely skirted the edges of it. He performed alongside the brightest sta...

24 Marras 20251h 4min

Sebastian Truskolaski, "Adorno and the Ban on Images" (Bloomsbury, 2022)

Sebastian Truskolaski, "Adorno and the Ban on Images" (Bloomsbury, 2022)

Adorno and the Ban on Images (Bloomsbury, 2022) upends some of the myths that have come to surround the work of the philosopher Theodor W. Adorno – not least amongst them, his supposed fatalism. Sebas...

24 Marras 202558min

Mary Edwards, "Sartre’s Existential Psychoanalysis: Knowing Others" (Bloomsbury, 2022)

Mary Edwards, "Sartre’s Existential Psychoanalysis: Knowing Others" (Bloomsbury, 2022)

Thinking of the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, it is hard to think of him without imagining him in very particular contexts. One will likely imagine him in a Parisian cafe working through a pack...

23 Marras 20251h 47min

Heather Davis, "Plastic Matter" (Duke UP, 2022)

Heather Davis, "Plastic Matter" (Duke UP, 2022)

Plastic is ubiquitous. It is in the Arctic, in the depths of the Mariana Trench, and in the high mountaintops of the Pyrenees. It is in the air we breathe and the water we drink. Nanoplastics penetrat...

23 Marras 20251h 1min

Can Feminism be African?: A Conversation with Minna Salami

Can Feminism be African?: A Conversation with Minna Salami

Transcript of the interview Minna Salami is a writer, social critic, and thought leader on feminism, knowledge production, and the aesthetics and structures of power. She formerly served as Programme...

20 Marras 202534min

160* Hannah Arendt's Refugee Politics (JP)

160* Hannah Arendt's Refugee Politics (JP)

John's “Arendt's Refugee Politics” came out in Public Books in early November. He made the case that his favorite political philosopher, Hannah Arendt is an opponent both of identity politics and also...

20 Marras 202521min

Suosittua kategoriassa Tiede

rss-mita-tulisi-tietaa
rss-poliisin-mieli
rss-lihavuudesta-podcast
utelias-mieli
rss-duodecim-lehti
tiedekulma-podcast
docemilia
mielipaivakirja
rss-ylistys-elaimille
rss-tervetta-skeptisyytta
koodikahvit
menologeja-tutkimusmatka-vaihdevuosiin
rss-ranskaa-raakana
rss-vaasan-yliopiston-podcastit
rss-metsa
rss-radplus
rss-tiedetta-vai-tarinaa