Power in the Highest Degree: Professionals and the Rise of a New Mandarin Order Hardcover

Charles Derber

One of the most sweeping works of social criticism to appear in years, this work offers a bold theory of modern classes and a comprehensive portrait of the modern professional. Drawing on one of the largest studies ever undertaken, including interviews with over 1,000 professionals, the authors show how experts, claiming a monopoly on many types of knowledge, are radically transforming the economic and social order. This book demonstrates how this has resulted in many citizens becoming deeply insecure about their competence to manage private and public affairs without professional guidance.

English

Oxford University Press, USA

286

Charles Derber is Associate Professor of Sociology at Boston College, where William A. Schwartz is a doctoral student in sociology. Yale Magrass is Professor of Sociology at Southeastern Massachusetts University.

A penetrating analysis .... It is an excellent guide to the system of 'Mandarin Capitalism' that the others see emerging and its wide-ranging consequences--Noam Chomsky "Many a page is delightful...full of insights" --Ivan Illich, author of Deschooling Society and Medical Nemesis "Power in the Highest Degree is an exciting, informative, and comprehenesive study of knowledge as power and control....Basic reading for the deepening of democracy and the weakening of inequalities in the '90s" S.M. Miller, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Boston University