Ethics for the City

Building and Dwelling

'Thank god for Richard Sennett ... essential reading for all students of the city' Anna Minton, Prospect 
 
'Constantly stimulating ideas from a veteran of urban thinking' Jonathan Meades, Guardian 
 
In Building and Dwelling, Richard Sennett distils a lifetime's thinking and practical experience to explore the relationship between the good built environment and the good life. He argues for, and describes in rich detail, the idea of an open city, one in which people learn to manage complexity. He shows how the design of cities can enrich or diminish the everyday experience of those who dwell in them. 
 
The book ranges widely - from London, Paris and Barcelona to Shanghai, Mumbai and Medellin in Colombia - and draws on classic thinkers such as Tocqueville, Heidegger, Max Weber, and Walter Benjamin. It also draws on Sennett's many decades as a practical planner himself, testing what works, what doesn't, and why. He shows what works ethically is often the most practical solution for cities' problems. This is a humane and thrilling book, which allows us to think freshly about how we live in cities. 
 
'Sennett is my kind of urbanist. He sees the modern city. He reads its secrets as he walks down the street, kicking over the detritus of the past ... There is no alternative to the planner, but please a planner who has read Sennett's book' Simon Jenkins, Sunday Times

A lateish-life appraisal of what Richard Sennett has read, written and, most vitally, witnessed on the street or in the marketplace in the tradition of the sharp-eyed, sharp-nosed flâneur taking in every sensation

Sennett leavens the big ideas with snapshots of real life. ... It reads like a summation of a life lived in cities and is, ultimately, a paean to their unpredictability, a call for tolerance and a celebration of difference.

He has brought to the study of urban life a perception that includes literature, philosophy, art, sociology and economics, as well as his personal experiences

Distils into a single volume his thoughts on how urban design shapes the ways in which we relate to one another ... Typically idealistic, typically urbane, it is well-timed for the disputes of our day

Richard Sennett grew up in the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago, attended the Julliard School in New York and then studied social relations at Harvard. Over the last five decades, he has written about social life in cities, changes in labour and social theory. His books include The Hidden Injuries of Class, The Fall of Public Man, The Corrosion of Character, The Culture of the New Capitalism, The Craftsman and Building and Dwelling. Sennett has advised the United Nations on urban issues for the past thirty years and currently serves as member of the UN Committee on Urban Initiatives. He is Visiting Professor of Urban Studies at Harvard. Among other awards, he has received the Hegel Prize, the Spinoza Prize and the Centennial Medal from Harvard University.

The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Cooperation

Together

As challenging and demanding as cooperation is, it has been our species' secret weapon, and those of us alive today are the descendants of people who had what it takes to make it work. This thoughtful book outlines the craftsmanship we will need to ensure that it continues to do so

A fresh exploration of one of the oldest conundrums facing social theory, which is how cooperation between people is forged and maintained

To call this captivating writer an academic sociologist makes as much, or as little, sense as labelling Mozart a court musician ... Eclectic, ecumenical, Sennett leads us with charm and candour down his chosen routes to renovation

Together is a profound mediation on how humans act as social animals, and an inspiring call for us all to try and embrace differences of tribe, religion and class

The book offers an artisanal response to a post-industrial condition ... In this sense, Sennett is a true heir to John Ruskin and William Morris

Richard Sennett's new book is an excellent resource to help us [work with others], and what shines through it is Sennett's own humanity. He is an excellent scholar and a very agile thinker ... this is a book that should be widely read

Co-operation is hard because it is about learning to live with people who think differently or don't know what they think at all. Sennett wants to remind us that this is a skill, and like any skill it takes patience and practice

Richard Sennett was founder director of the New York Institute for the Humanities, and is now University Professor at New York University. He has previously won the Amalfi and Ebert prizes for sociology and in 2010 was awarded the Spinoza Prize for outstanding contributions to public debate on ethics and morality. Together forms part of a three-book project on 'homo faber, 'focusing on the skills human beings possess to make a life together;the first volume of this large project, The Craftsman, was published in 2008. He is the author of many celebrated books including The Fall of Public Man, Flesh and Stone and The Corrosion of Character.

Living with people who differ - racially, ethnically, religiously or economically - is one of the most urgent challenges facing civil society today. Together argues that co-operation needs more than good will: it is a craft that requires skill. In modern society traditional bonds are waning, and we must develop new forms of secular, civic ritual that make us more skilful in living with others. From Medieval guilds to today's social networks, Richard Sennett's visionary book explores the nature of co-operation, why it has become weak and how it can be strengthened.

The Craftsman

Provocative and enlightening, Richard Sennett's The Craftsman is an exploration of craftsmanship - the desire to do a job well for its own sake - as a template for living. 
 
 Most of us have to work. But is work just a means to an end? In trying to make a living, have we lost touch with the idea of making things well? 
 
 Pure competition, Sennett shows, will never produce good work. Instead, the values of the craftsman, whether in a Stradivari violin workshop or a modern laboratory, can enrich our lives and change the way we anchor ourselves in the world around us. 
 
 The past lives of crafts and craftsmen show us ways of working - using tools, acquiring skills, thinking about materials - which provide rewarding alternative ways for people to utilise their talents. We need to recognize this if motivations are to be understood and lives made as fulfilling as possible. 
 
 'Lively, engaging and pertinent ... a lifetime's learning has gone into the writing of this book' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Roger Scruton, Sunday Times 
 
 'An enchanting writer with important things to say' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Fiona MacCarthy, Guardian 
 
 'Enthralling ... Sennett is keen to reconnect thinking with making, to revive the simple pleasure in the everyday object and the useful task. There is something here for all of us' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Edwin Heathcote, Financial Times 
 
 'A masterpiece' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Boyd Tonkin, Independent 
 
 Richard Sennett's previous books include The Fall of Public Man, The Corrosion of Character, Flesh and Stone and Respect. He was founder director of the New York Institute for the Humanities, and is now University Professor at New York University and Academic Governor and Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics.

Richard Sennett's previous books include The Fall of Public Man, The Corrosion of Character, Flesh and Stone and Respect. He was founder director of the New York Institute for the Humanities, and is now University Professor at New York University and Academic Governor and Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics. He has won the Amalfi and Ebert prizes for sociology and in 2006 was awarded the Hegel Prize by the City of Stuttgart.

Why do people work hard, and take pride in what they do? This book, a philosophically-minded enquiry into practical activity of many different kinds past and present, is about what happens when people try to do a good job. It asks us to think about the true meaning of skill in the 'skills society' and argues that pure competition is a poor way to achieve quality work. Sennett suggests, instead, that there is a craftsman in every human being, which can sometimes be enormously motivating and inspiring - and can also in other circumstances make individuals obsessive and frustrated. 
 
The Craftsman shows how history has drawn fault-lines between craftsman and artist, maker and user, technique and expression, practice and theory, and that individuals' pride in their work, as well as modern society in general, suffers from these historical divisions. But the past lives of crafts and craftsmen show us ways of working (using tools, acquiring skills, thinking about materials) which provide rewarding alternative ways for people to utilise their talents. We need to recognise this if motivations are to be understood and lives made as fulfilling as possible.

The Formation of Character in an Age of Inequality

Respect

'Wise and humane...Sennett has set his sights on that most daring of missions: to make the world a better place' Alain de Botton, Daily Telegraph

Richard Sennett's Respect: The Formation of Character in an Age of Equality is a provocative and timely examination of the forces that erode respect in modern society. 
 
 'Unlike food, respect costs nothing. Why, then, should it be in short supply?' 
 
 Respect can be attained by gaining success, by developing talents, through financial independence and by helping others. But, Sennett argues, many who are not able to achieve the demands of today's meritocracy lose the esteem that should be given to them. 
 
 From his childhood in a poor Chicago housing project to the contrasting methods of care practised by a nun and a social worker, from the harmonious interaction of musicians to the welfare system, Sennett explores the ways in which mutual respect can forge bonds across the divide of inequality. 
 
 'One of the boldest social thinkers of his generation ... [Sennett] has a genius for revealing the roots of our discontents' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Boyd Tonkin, Independent 
 
 'Dazzling ... an elegant mix of interview, anecdote and wide research' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Jenny Turner, Guardian 
 
 'This is the voice of a prophet' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Scott McLemee, Washington Post 
 
 'Wise and humane ... Sennett has set his sights on that most daring of missions: to make the world a better place' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Alain de Botton, Daily Telegraph 
 
 'Wholly engrossing ... [Sennett] explores ways of preserving an equality of respect' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Alan Ryan, New York Review of Books 
 
 Richard Sennett's previous works include The Fall of Public Man, The Corrosion of Character, Respect, Flesh and Stone and The Craftsman. He taught for many years at the New York Institute of the Humanities and is now a Professor at the London School of Economics.

Richard Sennett's previous works include The Fall of Public Man, The Corrosion of Character and Flesh and Stone. He taught for many years at  the New York Institute of the Humanities and is now a Professor at the London School of Economics.

In this provocative and timely book, Richard Sennett examines the forces that erode respect in modern society. Respect can be gained by attaining success, by developing talents, through financial independence and by helping others. But, Sennett argues, many who are not able to achieve the demands of today's meritocracy lose the esteem that should be given to them. 
 
From his childhood in a poor Chicago housing project to the contrasting methods of care practised by a nun and a social worker, from the harmonious interaction of musicians to the welfare system, Sennett explores the ways in which mutual respect can forge bonds across the divide of inequality.

The Fall of Public Man

Richard Sennett's The Fall of Public Man examines the growing imbalance between private and public experience, and asks what can bring us to reconnect with our communities. 
 
 Are we now so self-absorbed that we take little interest in the world beyond our own lives? Or has public life left no place for individuals to participate? 
 
 Tracing the changing nature of urban society from the eighteenth century to the world we now live in, and the decline of involvement in political life in recent decades, Richard Sennett discusses the causes of our social withdrawal. His landmark study of the imbalance of modern civilization provides a fascinating perspective on the relationship between public life and the cult of the individual. 
 
 'Brilliant ... One admires the breadth of Professor Sennett's erudition, the reach of his historical imagination, the doggedness of his analysis ... Buy this book and read it. Ironically, it may provide a key to happiness' The New York Times

Richard Sennett now works at the LSE where he runs their Cities Programme.  His previous publications include his best-seller THE CORROSION OF CHARACTER.  His next book, RESPECT: THE FORMATION OF CHARACTER IN A WORLD OF INEQUALITY, will be publishedby Allen Lane in January 2003.

THE FALL OF PUBLIC MAN is a book in the great tradition of sociological scholarship.  Sennett writes first of the tension between the public and private realms in which we live, arguing that different types of behaviour and activity are appropriate in each.  He argues that the barrier between these different realms has been eroded, and that this breakdown is so profound that public man has been left with no certain idea of his role in society.  Sennett sees the development of the city as the single most important element of the social change he describes, and puts his argument in its historical perspective through an analysis of the changes in our built environment from the 18th century to the present day.

Richard Sennett

Urgent, penetrating, moving. A masterwork from a master thinker.

Ian Bostridge, author of Schubert’s Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession

Richard Sennett calls on his vast knowledge of theater and performance to argue for the social uses of civility&mdash;and against the degradation of public social space brought by demagogues. This is a book that ranges widely while speaking forcefully to our current needs.

[A] timely study of the place of performance in society ... Sennett combines erudition with personal experience ... Performance, he believes, and the emotions it arouses, are fundamental to being human ... colourful stories ... unique insight and intelligence

He looks at every aspect of performing - where it is done, stage or street; the performances of demagogues; the audience who takes it all in; the masks, clothing and appurtenances of acting in public. Sennett uses a wide frame of reference to bolster his analysis

Sennett has the confidence to present a grand international cultural narrative ... revealing ... enjoyable

Art, Life, Politics

The Performer explores the relations between performing in art (particularly music), politics and everyday experience. It focuses on the bodily and physical dimensions of performing, rather than on words. Richard Sennett is particularly attuned to the ways in which the rituals of ordinary life are performances. 
 
The book draws on history and sociology, and more personally on the author's early career as a professional cellist, as well as on his later work as a city planner and social thinker. It traces the evolution of performing spaces in the city; the emergence of actors, musicians, and dancers as independent artists; the inequality between performer and spectator; the uneasy relations between artistic creation and social and religious ritual; the uses and abuses of acting by politicians. The Janus-faced art of performing is both destructive and civilizing. 
 
This is the first in a trilogy of books on the fundamental DNA of human expression: performing, narrating, and imaging.

Richard Sennett

Praise for The Performer

Urgent, penetrating, moving. A masterwork from a master thinker.

Richard Sennett calls on his vast knowledge of theater and performance to argue for the social uses of civility—and against the degradation of public social space brought by demagogues. This is a book that ran ...

[A] timely study of the place of performance in society ... Sennett combines erudition with personal experience ... Performance, he believes, and the emotions it arouses, are fundamental to being human ... colourful ...

Urgent, penetrating, moving. A masterwork from a master thinker.

Richard Sennett calls on his vast knowledge of theater and performance to argue for the social uses of civility—and against the degradation of public social space brought by demagogues. This is a book that ran ...

[A] timely study of the place of performance in society ... Sennett combines erudition with personal experience ... Performance, he believes, and the emotions it arouses, are fundamental to being human ... colourful ...

Urgent, penetrating, moving. A masterwork from a master thinker.

Richard Sennett calls on his vast knowledge of theater and performance to argue for the social uses of civility—and against the degradation of public social space brought by demagogues. This is a book that ran ...

[A] timely study of the place of performance in society ... Sennett combines erudition with personal experience ... Performance, he believes, and the emotions it arouses, are fundamental to being human ... colourful ...

Books by Richard Sennett

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