Chapter Richard Sennett: quando il capitale si fa impaziente

Abstract

Of Sennett's scientific production, this chapter takes into consideration the consequences that on work (and on man) have produced and are producing the great transformations taking place worldwide; but also the forces in the field that, according to Sennett, could counter these trends. The first part is dedicated to the analysis of the "new capitalism", where two processes that feed each other dominate: globalization and acceleration of time. The answer to these changed contextual conditions is flexibility, which becomes the constitutive principle of the organization of work in the "new capitalism". In the Author's opinion, while Sennett is convincing in the analysis of what happens - on a collective and individual level - when capitalism becomes impatient, the prepositive part on what to do appears to him less solid, where Sennett's pragmatism merges with an idealism with utopian overtones.