John Bone - Böcker

In this work John Bone provides a lively and engaging insight into the social world of direct selling organizations. He investigates these under-researched organizations via a detailed ethnography of two home improvement companies selling products such as fitted kitchens, double glazing and conservatories, as well as developing wider sociological debates on trust and interaction. These organizations tend to be loosely ordered and internally competitive collectives whose sole aim is to maximize short term profits through sales strategies that routinely employ the calculative exploitation of consumer norms and expectations. John Bone uses his findings to argue that amid the wave of increasing deregulation and liberalization that has supplanted the planned and regulated form of capitalism that predominated until the 1970s, such conditions are now becoming prevalent in mainstream contemporary organizations, threatening to unleash a latent disorder that underlies the rationality of 'modern' business.

'Nature' is perhaps the most contested term in the social sciences. It has a huge variety of possible meanings, and an equally great number of implications as to what human life actually is and how it should be studied. Questions frequently raised include: What is 'nature'? What is 'human nature'? How does mankind act upon, change, manipulate and otherwise alter the 'natural world', and what might the consequences be thereof? How does the 'natural world' impinge upon human life? What are the moral and ethical issues involved in the areas just mentioned?Containing the main contributions that have been made within this field of study, these fascinating volumes include a new introduction that places the articles in their historical and intellectual context, as well as an extensive index and chronological table of contents.Previous titles in the series include Tourism (0-415-24364-5) 2004, 4 volumes and Material Culture (0-415-26718-8) May 2004, 5 volumes. Forthcoming titles include Political Geography (0-415-33210-9) June 2005, 4 volumes and Economic Geography (0-415-33841-7) 2005, 5 volumes.

In this work John Bone provides a lively and engaging insight into the social world of direct selling organizations. He investigates these under-researched organizations via a detailed ethnography of two home improvement companies selling products such as fitted kitchens, double glazing and conservatories, as well as developing wider sociological debates on trust and interaction. These organizations tend to be loosely ordered and internally competitive collectives whose sole aim is to maximize short term profits through sales strategies that routinely employ the calculative exploitation of consumer norms and expectations. John Bone uses his findings to argue that amid the wave of increasing deregulation and liberalization that has supplanted the planned and regulated form of capitalism that predominated until the 1970s, such conditions are now becoming prevalent in mainstream contemporary organizations, threatening to unleash a latent disorder that underlies the rationality of 'modern' business.

It seems clear that many formerly stable societies in wealthy developed countries appear to be falling into an apparent state of ‘permacrisis' accompanied by an increasingly angry and irrational social and political culture that is undermining the peace and stability of our societies and democratic institutions, from the local to the global.Applying an original biosocial approach (the social map), and drawing on ideas and evidence from sociology, history and political economy, to psychology, neuroscience and epigenetics, John Bone argues that conditions in our turbocapitalist and increasingly estranged, media dominated societies have created a toxic environment, deeply damaging to our mental and physical health. As well as shedding new light on our current troubles, Bone also outlines why this leaves us ill prepared to deal with two of the greatest challenges confronting humanity: the rise of AI and automation and how we deal with climate change.