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length. Yet it is an important, if essayistic, holders, just to mention a few. All these amount
contribution to the debate on flexible capitalism. to changing employment practices that find
Sennett presents a fresh view on the relation- their concrete expressions in declining employ-
ship between work and construction of the ment security and more uncertain wage and
identity. He also puts forward the question of the salary prospects over time, the dark side of the
moral aspects of the new flexible capitalism, a era of flexible accumulation, as Harrison (1999)>
question that is to a large extent forgotten in labels the same phenomenon (Harrison, B..
post-Fordist debates. Sennett takes up the views 1999, Lcnn mId Menn: VB1/1Y Large Corporations
that appear, for example, in the writings of Will Cotitiiiiie to Dominate the Globnl Econorry.
Zygmunt Bauman. Baumans view of peoples New York: Guildford Press).
life histories indeed mirrors the experience of Undoubtedly Sennett is right in suggesting
time and its fragmented nature in the modern that it is precisely the short time frame of
political economy. As Sennett so eloquently puts modern institutions that limits the development
it, a pliant self, a collage of fragments unceas- of informal trust and strong ties (Granovetter.
ing in its becoming, could be seen under just M., 1973, The Strength of Weak Ties. American
the right psychological conditions to be suited Journal of Sociology, 78( 6): 13 6()-1 380), rather
to short-term work experience, flexible institu- than high-tech data operations, free trade or
tions and constant risk-taking. However, in other global activities in the economy as such.
Baumans views of discontinuity there is little However, the text lacks solid empirical evidence
room for understanding the breakdown of a and references to such works, as Sennett argues
career if the belief is that all life history is just an on the philosophical and theoretical levels and
assemblage of fragments without coherence. does not cite empirical evidence to back up his
There exists considerable empirical evi- arguments, although he does attach statistical
dence from many countries that in the 1980s tables as illustrations for some recent economic
and 1990s, large corporations have moved on trends in the USA. The empirical evidence
to short-term contracts at all levels in the backing Sennetts argument is to be found
workforce in increasing numbers. There is also elsewhere, yet it is relatively straightforward.
much evidence that both job insecurity and Evidence for the short time frame of organiza-
intensification of work have increased through- tions is to be found in the recent growth of
out the 1990s, particularly amongst profes- flexitime and zero-hours employment contracts,
sional workers. These two phenomena are especially in the banking and financial service
undoubtedly correlated. The rise of short-term sectors (e.g. Neathey, F. & Hurstfield, J., 1995,
contracts in non-standard employment has Floxihilit~ in Prnctice: vB1omells Employment alld
been characterized as the decline of the job, Pat in Retail nnd Finance. London: OECD). As
and it has occurred not only in private Harvey (1999) points out, it is precisely the
corporations, but in increasing numbers also zero-hours contracts that show distinctive
in the public sector, universities included, as we temporality, with people bound by a contract.
all know so well. unpaid while not working but available all the
As capitalism and even bureaucracy now time on call to meet possible needs at work
act on entirely different productive principles (Harvey, M., 1999, Economies of Time. In
than the classics such as Weber knew, it is also Felstead, A. & Jewson, N. (eds.), Globnl Trends
true, believes Sennett, that individual careers in Flexible Labour, pp. ? 1-~Z London: Macmil-
are formed in an entirely different way. As lan). This seems to be the trend in public sector
Sennett rightly points out, in Webers usage employment with short-term employment con-
Berijf stresses the importance of work as an tracts and flexible use of substitutes. As the
essential part of peoples lives and the develop- evidence shows, these forms of contract also
ment of the individuals character, which was include high levels of uncertainty and unpre-
possible only by long-term, organized effort. dictability.
According to Sennett, the short-term, flexible But Sennetts book also raises questions,
time of the new capitalism seems to preclude which it, does not discuss at sufficient
arguably,
making any sustained commitment with ones length or at all. One of the major questions is
labour or in ones career. Changes in the whether the changed nature of the corporate
economy are motivated by a complexity of society and new short-term employment rela-
factors such as deregulation, networks, increas- tionships is solely and completely responsible for
ing competition, financial markets and the the corrosion of character. Does work alone
importance of short-term profits for share- create and erode identity? Sennett does not
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1
provide us with clear-cut answers based on 1998. It also became the New Stntesmnns best
empirical research. Sennetts argument is built book of 1998, and was awarded the 1998
up on idea that no long term is a principle that European Amalfi Prize for Sociology and Social
corrodes trust, loyalty and mutual commit- Sciences. If we are to take Sennetts argument
ment. In a parallel fashion, short-term society seriously, that short-term capitalism threatens
based on experiences that drift in time from to corrode individual character, especially those
place to place, or job to job,threatens to corrode qualities of character that bind human beings to
the individuals character, as the life history one another and furnish each of us with a sense
composed only of episodes, fragments and of sustainable self, it would be well worth
constant changes does not give stability to seeking further empirical evidence to back up
ones life, and thus, to character. According to his arguments.
Sennett, the conditions of time in the new
capitalism have created a conflict between Anne Kovalainen
character and experience. This conflict between Swedish School of Economics and Business
the moral dimension of the self and the Administration
experience of disjointed time threatens the Helsinki. Finland
ability of people to form their characters into
sustained entities.
Another major question that Sennetts
book raises is naturally the question of how
novel the effects of the new economy are. Even if
the uncertainty in employment and flexible
arrangements at work have become more
common than ever, even among the highly
educated, and certainly the rapid and globally
pervasive growth of networking in production
has been huge compared with earlier decades,
the changes in employment might not be as
new as Sennett suggests. For a long time, the
labour-market uncertainties faced by women
have to a longer and greater extent affected
their lives and shaped their decisions, and no
doubt also their characters. In countries with
liberal or conservatist/corporatist types of wel-
fare state, the sources of influence on the
development of non-standard work exist in the
gender arrangements of their societies, not
merely in the labour-markets or corporations.
Sennett devotes little space to the social
organization or social consequences of the
new economy, although these are integral
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