Working Together: How Workplace Bonds Strengthen a Diverse Democracy

ISBN-13: 9780195158298 / Angielski / Miękka / 2005 / 256 str.

Cynthia Estlund

Opis

At a time when communal ties in American society are increasingly frayed and segregation persists, the workplace is more than ever the site where Americans from different ethnic, religious, and racial backgrounds meet and forge serviceable and sometimes lasting bonds. What do these highly structured workplace relationships mean for a society still divided by gender and race? The involuntariness of workplace interactions--prescribed by both external law and internal constraints--helps ensure that the often-troubled and often-failed project of racial integration succeeds at work. People can be forced to get along--not without friction, but with surprising success.

This highly original exploration of the paradoxical nature--and the paramount importance--of workplace bonds concludes with concrete suggestions for how law can further realize the democratic possibilities of working together. In linking workplace integration and connectedness beyond work, Estlund suggests a novel and promising strategy for addressing the most profound challenges facing American society.

Recenzje

"Working Together is an original and important book. With eloquent prose, Cynthia Estlund convincingly develops the argument, based on a careful integration of empirical studies and social and political theory, that working together enhances inter-group relations in the long run. Indeed her analysis demonstrates the work place is the most important setting for cooperative interaction among individuals of diverse backgrounds. This book has enormous relevance for students concerned about the future of civil society, and will be widely discussed and cited for many years."—William Julius Wilson, Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor, Harvard University

O autorze

Cynthia Estlund is a Professor of Law at Columbia University, where she teaches employment, labor, and property law.