The Domestication of Competition

Social Evolution and Liberal Society

Inbunden, Engelska, 2023

Av Jonathan Hearn, Jonathan (University of Edinburgh) Hearn

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Competition is deeply built into the structures of modern life. It can improve policies, products and services, but is also seen as a divisive burden that pits people against one another. This book seeks to go beyond such caricatures by advancing a new thesis about how competition came to shape our society. Jonathan Hearn argues that competition was 'domesticated', harnessed and institutionalised across a range of institutional spheres in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Responding to crises in traditional forms of authority (hereditary, religious), the formalisation of competition in the economy, politics, and diverse new forms of knowledge creation provided a new mode for legitimating distributions of power in the emerging liberal societies. This insightful study aims to improve our ability to think critically about competition, by better understanding its integral role, for good and ill, in how liberal forms of society work.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2023-02-16
Mått158 x 235 x 23 mm
Vikt630 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor330
FörlagCambridge University Press
ISBN9781009199155

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Introduction; Part I. The Ideas: 1. The context of the question; 2. The theoretical approach; Part II. The Analytic Narrative: 3. The decline of traditional authority, and the rise of corporate actors; 4. Militias to militaries; 5. From adventurers to companies; 6. From factions to parties; 7. From churches to universities; Part III. The Wider View: 8. The culture of competition; 9. The critique of competition; Conclusion; References.

'Only a scholar from social anthropology could have written this book! It locates and analyses the cultural code on which our societies depend, that of competition. It does so with skill and nuance, stressing the role played by regulation and law in ensuring social progress. This is a wholly original, path-breaking book, challenging assumptions about competition found on both the left and the right, and likely to cause a stir in many disciplines.' John Hall, McGill University