Michael J. Piore is David W. Skinner Professor of Political Economy, Emeritus, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Piore’s new book may be brief, its arguments compressed, but it provocatively combines two sizable ambitions: to serve as a theoretical orientation to identify identity-based movements and to address their weaknesses… He makes many valuable arguments along the way, raising considerably the level of discussion in a territory that, for several years now, has been marked by advocacy more than by critical reflection.

• The social deficit and the new identity groups; politics and policy; economic constraints and social demands; a cognitive approach to economics; an interpretative approach to cognition; the American repertoire; towards a politics of common understanding.

Michael J. Piore is David W. Skinner Professor of Political Economy, Emeritus, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Piore’s new book may be brief, its arguments compressed, but it provocatively combines two sizable ambitions: to serve as a theoretical orientation to identify identity-based movements and to address their weaknesses… He makes many valuable arguments along the way, raising considerably the level of discussion in a territory that, for several years now, has been marked by advocacy more than by critical reflection.

• The social deficit and the new identity groups; politics and policy; economic constraints and social demands; a cognitive approach to economics; an interpretative approach to cognition; the American repertoire; towards a politics of common understanding.

Michael J. Piore is David W. Skinner Professor of Political Economy, Emeritus, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Piore’s new book may be brief, its arguments compressed, but it provocatively combines two sizable ambitions: to serve as a theoretical orientation to identify identity-based movements and to address their weaknesses… He makes many valuable arguments along the way, raising considerably the level of discussion in a territory that, for several years now, has been marked by advocacy more than by critical reflection.

• The social deficit and the new identity groups; politics and policy; economic constraints and social demands; a cognitive approach to economics; an interpretative approach to cognition; the American repertoire; towards a politics of common understanding.