Knowing Capitalism

Thrift considers what happened when capitalism began to consider its own practices on a continuous basis, use its fear of uncertainty as a resource, and think of the everyday. He counters critics of capitalism who think of it as hard graft by saying in fact it is vital, and even fun. Alone, or with co-authors, he explores how capitalism creates the new and then applies it, first in what he calls the "cultural circuit" of capitalism, including "soft capitalism," complexity, globalization in reflexive business knowledge, and the re-engineering of capitalism's soul on a global scale. He then examines the new economy, including a market culture that has produced such disparate elements as the automatic production of space, intelligent environments, new models of everyday life, new forms of possession and the "supertoy," and how capitalism has caused us to recognize the technological unconscious. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR