The Brave New World of Work

With characteristic panache, Ulrich Beck has once again cut right through conventional economic and political language to make his point. There is enough work to do for all, but the "work society" is gone. In the "second modernity" individuals define the patterns of their lives themselves, and a "self-active civil society" has become possible. Ulrich Beck's new book makes even New Labour look old and is thus bound to stimulate a lively debate.' Lord Dahrendorf, formerly Director of the London School of Economics 'Beck does it again - just as he challenged us in the 1990s to shift attention from capital to risk, now he calls on us to turn from paid work to civil labour in creating a postnational cosmopolitan society. This is the kind of pace-setting radical thinking necessary to keep up with the breakneck speed of change in the Global Age. Yet, another bravura performance.' Martin Albrow, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars,and University of Surrey Roehampton "Beck develops an intelligent andc well written alternative scenario to current models of work" Thomas Klikauer, University of western Sydney 'In a brief but compelling book, Beck details the problems and prospects for societies that remain trapped by an ideology focused on work ... This well-written book raises important questions and challenges dominant assumptions. It should be useful to a variety of levels and disciplines.' Choice 'There is no shortage of books about the future of work. This one is well worth reading. It greatly extends and devlops Beck's discussion of the "destandardization of labour" in his Risk Society, and makes a contribution which is original, complex, subtle, wide-ranging ... always stimulating.' Work, Employment and Society 'This book will be popular with non-academic audiences and will prove useful in getting students to think critically about the nature of society and the workplace' Progress in Human Geography 26, 1

Ulrich Beck is Professor of Sociology at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich

1. The Brazilianization of the West: Two Scenarios, One Introduction. 2. The Antithesis to the Work Society. 3. The Transition from the First to the Second Modernity: Five Challenges. 4. The Future of Work and Its Scenarios: An Interim Balance-Sheet. 5. The Risk Regime: How the Work Society is Becoming Risk Society. 6. A Thousand Worlds of Insecure Work: Europe's Future Glimpsed in Brazil. 7. The Great Example? Work and Democracy in America. 8. Vision of the Future I: The Europe of Civic Labour. 9. Vision of the Future II: Postnational Civil Society. Notes. Select Bibliography.