You are here

Shifts in the Social Contract
Share
Share

Shifts in the Social Contract
Understanding Change in American Society

  • Beth Rubin - University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA


224 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
Examining the changes in society in the United States, Beth Rubin explains how the current era differs fundamentally from the post-World War Two period; how and why that change has occured; and what its meaning is to everyday life. She traces the changes from a domestic to a global economy, the transformation of the workplace, and the impact that these changes have had on how other people are experiencing social aspects of their lives: their families and interpersonal relations, their communities and their experience of the culture of mass society.
 
PART ONE: SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
 
Society in Transition
 
The American Dream
Accord in the Post-World War II Era

 
 
End of a Century, End of an Era
 
Implications
 
PART TWO: FROM INDUSTRIAL ECONOMY TO FLEXIBLE ECONOMY
 
The Labor-Capital Accord
 
The Breakdown of the Accord
 
The Emerging Economy
 
Conclusions
 
PART THREE: WORK IN THE FLEXIBLE ECONOMY
 
Labor Market Segmentation
 
Work in the Accord Years
The Stable Workplace

 
 
Work in the Post-Accord Years
The Flexible Workplace

 
 
The Challenge to Education
 
Conclusions
 
PART FOUR: FLEXIBLE FAMILIES
 
From Pre-Industrial Families to Modern Families
 
Accord-Era Families
 
Forming Flexible Families
 
Conclusions
 
PART FIVE: THE CHANGING ROLE OF GOVERNMENT
 
Levels of Government Involvement
 
The Uninvolved State
 
The Involved State
 
The Distracted State
 
Conclusions
 
PART SIX: CULTURE IN A CHANGING WORLD
 
Culture
The Creation of Meaning

 
 
Forces of Cultural Change
 
Globalization and Cultural Change
 
Conclusions
 
PART SEVEN: TRANSITION TO THE FUTURE
 
The Decline of the Postwar Social Contract, Revisited
 
A New Era of Flexibility
 
Possible Worlds
 
Conclusions

Beth A. Rubin

SAGE Knowledge is the ultimate social sciences digital library for students, researchers, and faculty. Hosting more than 4,400 titles, it includes an expansive range of SAGE eBook and eReference content, including scholarly monographs, reference works, handbooks, series, professional development titles, and more.

The platform allows researchers to cross-search and seamlessly access a wide breadth of must-have SAGE book and reference content from one source.