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85th out of 208 books
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140 voters
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Elsewhere, U.S.A.: How We Got from the Company Man, Family Dinners, and the Affluent Society to the Home Office, BlackBerry Moms, and Economic Anxiety
Over the past three decades, our daily lives have changed slowly but dramatically. Boundaries between leisure and work, public space and private space, and home and office have blurred and become permeable. How many of us now work from home, our wireless economy allowing and encouraging us to work 24/7? How many of us talk to our children while scrolling through e-mails o...more
Hardcover, 240 pages
Published
January 13th 2009
by Pantheon
(first published December 27th 2008)
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A busy professional with an equally busy spouse -- he is Chair of New York University's Sociology Department; his wife is experimental designer Natalie Jeremijenko -- Dalton Conley lives the multiple lives he describes. Most critics think he has honed a forward-looking book that successfully combines personal anecdote and hard science. Even if his ideas are not cutting-edge, he is a "lively if sometimes overheated writer" (New York Times Book Review) who presents a snapshot of our time
...more
This is the best book on socioeconomics that I’ve read this year and in my shortlist for best overall of 2009. If Soros addressed the current economic world at systemic and financial levels, Conley does so at the sociological and technological. The Internet, Blackberries, social networking, knowledge work replacing the creation of stuff, working at home, the upward spiral of education, earnings and status, equal earners, raising kids, how people can feel more fragmented despite greater connected...more
As much economic treatise and discussion of new technology as the sociological study it purports to be but an still a mostly interesting synopsis of how American (largely) society “progressed” from 1959’s loyal, focused, striving Organization Man to 2009’s disloyal, distracted (the Elsewhere in the title refers to the constant mental splitting of attention) and far more driven corporate man and woman. Late in the book Conley says he largely tried to avoid predictions and judgments but clearly t...more
Elsewhere, U.S.A. initially comes off as a more comprehensive update to Georg Simmel’s The Metropolis and Mental Life where Mr. and Mrs. 2009’s exposure to the unwieldy onslaught of emails, soccer practices, and complex-professional demands tends to increasingly fragment any clear notion of the individual (or the inner, private self). Whereas I’ve always read Simmel’s 1903 ode in hindsight as far too hyperbolic, Conley’s text does an admirable job of presenting many of these issues in a compreh...more
A fascinating look at how the work and home life of the American professional person has changed over the past 50 years, as various factors combined to turn him or her from an "individual" to an "intravidual"--a sort of multiple personality who must simultaneously cope with competing stimuli from work, home, and other areas of society. Conley examines how several factors contributed to this change, from advances in computer/telecom technology, to the rise of women in profess...more
Conley sets forth to explain a cultural phenomenon in the US in which people are increasingly disconnected, despite all the advances in communications technology. At least, I thought that’s what this was going to be about. Actually, it feels more like some kind of disorganized rip-off of “Freakonomics,” only not as well written. Conley often attempts to make an objective statement, only to follow it with one that leans heavily left or right (making BOTH left- and right-leaning comments does not ...more
Elsewhere U.S.A. is a sociological inspection of recent trends in the worls of work, technology, and family and interpersonal life in the United States, particularly for people from upper and upper-middle classes.
Conley is an engaging and accessible writer, and he is able to introduce fundamental sociological concepts from the classics (Marx, Weber, Durkheim) in straightforward language and with simple metaphors and examples.
He develops new sociological concepts that are ...more
Conley is an engaging and accessible writer, and he is able to introduce fundamental sociological concepts from the classics (Marx, Weber, Durkheim) in straightforward language and with simple metaphors and examples.
He develops new sociological concepts that are ...more
I picked up and read this one as it is about one of the subjects I am interested in. I enjoyed it, but can't say that I really learned anything from it.... He talks about "weisure" where we are working during our leisure time by being tied to our blackberries, etc. Times sure have changed since the 1950's, but since I have lived through these changes, I was already aware of the vast majority of them. Didn't even find new insight into these issues. That being said, I still found that it...more
I have no idea why I picked up this book. It's basically a regurgitation of various problems that we are all familiar with. It is entirely heterocentric. And it offers no actual facts and figures to back up its claims (which I think is probably why I picked it up: I had thought that a sociologist would produce some interesting supporting evidence for what he was saying. Apparently not.)
Not recommended for any non-luddite who actually lives in "Elsewhere, USA."
E...more
Not recommended for any non-luddite who actually lives in "Elsewhere, USA."
E...more
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Quotes from danah boyd's review (http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archive...):
"This constant fear of being exposed, cut out, or outsourced, and thereby having one's 'capital' rendered valueless, is the principal pathos of the era."
"Whereas in the industrial epoch, the ability to cloister oneself off from the hoi polloi was a mark of power; in the post-industrial, networked economy, being surrounded by as many people as possible, all seeking your attention,...more
"This constant fear of being exposed, cut out, or outsourced, and thereby having one's 'capital' rendered valueless, is the principal pathos of the era."
"Whereas in the industrial epoch, the ability to cloister oneself off from the hoi polloi was a mark of power; in the post-industrial, networked economy, being surrounded by as many people as possible, all seeking your attention,...more
I hated this book so much that I kept reading so I could find more things to hate about it. It's like an all-you-can-eat stereotype buffet. It opens with an absurd caricature of an urban professional as if Conley's ability to dream it up somehow proves his point. This becomes a habit, in which he simply makes huge assumptions and then works off of them without bothering to justify them. The only observations that I didn't hate were the completely obvious and unoriginal ones. I don't know why I d...more
Hear ye, you wordsmiths of the web, you purveyors of pages, you iterators of information: Welcome to Elsewhere, U.S.A., a state of mind in which you are constantly moving; You are slinging nothing but ideas and giving up your leisure time to do it; You are working from home but are always available to the company via your Blackberry (which you are using to schedule your babysitters and manage your children); You hold the fear of the layoff or of lost earnings if you dare close your laptop long e...more
I want to like this book--from the descriptions it seems that it describes my lifestyle pretty well. But 50 pages in, I'm not liking it much at all. Sorry, but using the word "paradigm" several times on the very first page is not a way to hook readers. Right now it's reading as a mildly interesting book appearing on a course syllabus, which I can only read a few pages at a time without falling asleep. The author IS a professor, which could be why it has that feel. It's short on actua...more
Lucid explanation of the dichotomy the modern human faces in trying to be an individual while be being overly networked. The concept of an "intravidual" as someone who has multiple selves/personsa and the stress that it brings is explained.
The book is spot-on in terms of its examples (Teaching kids Mandarin, working on Webkinz, home-office). The book does not provide answers, but does go miles in explaining many of things we take for granted. (Why do we clean up after ourselv...more
The book is spot-on in terms of its examples (Teaching kids Mandarin, working on Webkinz, home-office). The book does not provide answers, but does go miles in explaining many of things we take for granted. (Why do we clean up after ourselv...more
Lots of interesting points from sociology perspective. The book flowed well, but also had a greater density of ideas then say Freakonomics. I felt like a was attending an engaging lecture series.
Outsourcing child raising, housekeeping, lawn care. Remaining plugged in 24/7. Fragmentation. Modern class relations. Lack of seperation between work and leisure.
Interesting to contemplate societies trends, and my place in them.
Outsourcing child raising, housekeeping, lawn care. Remaining plugged in 24/7. Fragmentation. Modern class relations. Lack of seperation between work and leisure.
Interesting to contemplate societies trends, and my place in them.
A sociologist's perspective of how we Americans have evolved from 1950's to present day, including the influence of technology and women in the workplace. The author also talks about the concepts of happiness, satisfaction, stress, and consumerism, and how these things tend to drive the working 24/7 mentality that is prevalent in our culture and society today.
One of my life goals is to "work to live, don't live to work". And apparently my choosing to bypass the fast tra...more
One of my life goals is to "work to live, don't live to work". And apparently my choosing to bypass the fast tra...more
Alfredo
added it
Very interesting analysis of American culture in the internet/Blackberry/e-mail era. The author traces the history of many current social trends (two wage homes, higher divorce rates (aka polygamy), home offices, tax inequity, earning disparity) to the rise of modern technology.
I was expecting Elsewhere, U.S.A. to be a diatribe railing against the modern world's tendency towards cell phones, virtual networking, and the shift away from "traditional" family mealtimes and the like. Instead, it was an even-handed look at the forces that have caused this shift and what it means for our country. Well-written and interesting.
I enjoy comparing social/culture changes between generations and this book definitely outlines how much faster our world has changed in the last 50 years, and whether or not we can call that progress?
Great sociological review of how american society has changed from the time of the 1950's "Organization Man" to the current always on blackberry lifestyle with less and less true leisure time.
Conley is obviously a superstar and a great writer, but this book - at times - felt like a well-written analysis of research over the past fifty years without any unifying narrative holding the book together. I never got a crystal clear sense of what Elsewhere, USA is. He made serveral great points, though I think he missed out linking them to a central thesis.
This was OK, and put a lot of data into an interesting context. I felt it was lacking in the author's understanding of the pressures of the corporate world he's describing. Unlike Barbara Ehrenreich, who really immerses herself in the issues she writes about, Conley came to this as an outsider and came off that way throughout.
Michelle
marked it as to-read
I read reviews of this book that make it sound interesting enough to check out from the library sometime. Don't plan to purchase it.
Intelligent and well-researched, I would highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in why we are where we are at currently in regards to the 24-hour work cycle, which I personally desperately try to get away from. An excellent book.
Does a good job opening up and articulating a conversation about the blurring of all the lines that is happening in society.
very interesting read. Makes me feel old though as the author is almost talking about another generation taking over. . .
Wished it was less sociology and more philosophy (the multiple-selves thing). Entertaining enough in a 3-star way, though.
An interesting view of our fast paced lives with new research to explain why we never get it all done.
Along the lines of Freakonomics and The Tipping Point, but much more intellectual (and probably not quite as entertaining), I still thoroughly enjoyed Conley's social commentary on where we've been and what we're becoming. Most of his discussion is just that, commentary, so if you're looking for lots of statistics on what he posits, you won't find it here. Still, though, I did like his thoughts, and the socio-economic perspective. Hard to recommend, as his writing is a bit on the dry side. But i...more
Thesis was a little all over the place, but a lot of good social commentary on the negative impact of "stuff" and being constantly connected in our society.
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