The Laws of Cool: Knowledge Work and the Culture of Information

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 552 pages
• Published by: University Of Chicago Press October 1, 2004
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0226486990
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0226486994
• Book Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Weighs: 1.6 pounds

Product Description
Knowledge work is now the reigning business paradigm and affects even the world of higher education. But what perspective can the knowledge of the humanities and arts contribute to a world of knowledge work whose primary mission is business? And what is the role of information technology as both the servant of the knowledge economy and the medium of a new technological cool? In The Laws of Cool, Alan Liu reflects on these questions as he considers the emergence of new information technologies and their profound influence on the forms and practices of knowledge.

From the Inside Flap
Knowledge work is now the reigning business paradigm and affects even the world of higher education. But what perspective can the knowledge of the humanities and arts contribute to a world of knowledge work whose primary mission is business? And what is the role of information technology as both the servant of the knowledge economy and the medium of a new technological cool? In The Laws of Cool, Alan Liu reflects on these questions as he considers the emergence of new information technologies and their profound influence on the forms and practices of knowledge.

Reader Reviews
In this book, Liu makes a persuasive argument that knowledge workers can resist the dominant postcapitalist business ideology from the inside by developing an "ethos of the unknown." The argument is dense, both philosophically and historically, but the book provides one of the best summaries available of the development of knowledge work and its relation to "cool." This survey is framed by a larger argument, however, which seeks to establish a place for the arts and humanities in the information age. Liu argues that together they can establish a historically grounded aesthetic sense to serve as a counterweight to the capitalist drive for innovation at any cost that ignores the past and its human costs.