Business and Society A Reader in the History, Sociology, and Ethics of Business

by Castro, Barry

• ISBN13: 9780195095661
• ISBN10: 0195095669
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-01-25
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Combining perspectives on the interplay of two areas of primary importance to our lives--business and society--this anthology brings together a wide range of readings on the subject. Topics include the historical evolution of the business enterprise, the emergence and development of the laborforce, and the impact of the international marketplace. Castro concentrates on the moral and social aspects of business, the way it affects national economy, the environment, careers, the disadvantaged, government, and public opinion. Combining the idea that a good business education must also be agood liberal education, Castro is careful to show the connections between the way Americans have done and thought about business in the past, with the way Americans think and do business today. Considering the abundance of socioeconomic issues in everyday life, he shows that business ethics hasalways been an integral part of business, and that this continues to be true. He shows that the historical, social, and ethical dimensions of business are an inseparable and necessary component of business education. Chosen for their student interest and accessibility, the readings can be used fora variety of different courses covering business and society.

Table of Contents

History

A Parable to Begin With

Daniel Lerner:""The Grocer and the Chief""

Opportnity and Dislocation

Oscar Handlin: ""Peasant Origins""

The New York Times: ""East Side Street Vendors""

Morris Rosenfeld: ""Sweat Shop""

Pedro Pietri: ""Puerto Rican Obituary""

Stephen Meyer III: ""Assembly-Line Americanization""

Business: Culture and Technology

Anthony Giddens: ""The Themes of the Protestant Ethic""

Clifford Geertz: ""Economic Development in Modjokuto""

Alfred D. Chandler: ""The Role of Business in the United States: A Historical Survey""

Capital Accumulation

John Maynard Keynes: ""On Late Nineteenth-Century Capitalism""

Steven F. Cohen: Selections

Community

Wendell Berry: ""Does Community Have a Value?""

Bringing It back Home

Barry Castro: ""Socrates in Dallas: Managing the Facilities""

Sociology

A Poem to Begin With

Robert Frost: ""Two Tramps in Mudtime""

Workers and Managers

Simone Weill: ""The Experience of Factory Life""

Robert Jackall: ""The Social Structure of Managerial Work""

George Orwell: ""Shooting an Elephant""

The Marginalized

William Langer: ""The Black Masses""

Herbert George Gutman (Selections)

Cornell West (Selections)

John Tierney: ""Harlem Teenagers Checkmate a Stereotype""

R.B. ""If Yo Go...""

Power and Culture

T.S. Eliot (Selections)

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (Selections)

Power, Culture, and Media

Ben H. Bagdidkian: ""The Wrong Kind of Readers: The Fall and Rise of the New Yorker""

Gloria Steinem: ""Sex, Lies, and Advertising""

Bringing It Back Home

Barry Castro: ""Learning about Education at the Workplace""

Ethics

A Dilemma To Begin With

Douglas Hofstadter: ""The Prisoner's Dilemma and the Evolution of Cooperation""

Conscience

Robert Solomon: ""The Corporation As Community""

Roger Rosenblatt: ""How Do They Live With Themselves?""

Law

Montesquieu: ""On Commerce""

Environment

Garrett Hardin: ""The Tragedy of the Commons""

Max Oelschaeger: ""The Idea of Wilderness""

Lynn White: ""The Historical Roots of Or Ecological Crisis""

An Overview

Albert O. Hirshman: ""Rival Interpretation of Market Society: Civilizing, Destructive, or Feeble?""

Bringing It Back Home

Barry Castro: ""Business Ethics: Knowing Ourselves""

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