Re: One-Dimensional Thought/Human Capital

[Xxxx Xxxxx Xxxxxx <xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In a collection of essays (Habermas) edited by Steve Seidman, there must be 
article
on Marcuse, Weber and late capitalism. I don't recall the title of the book now,
but you can check out under Steve S.  Habermas is not great, but he touches 
upon a
lot of issues about Marcuse's observations.


Xxxx

Stephen Smith wrote:

> In One-Dimensional Man, Marcuse observes how affixing certain adjectives to
> nouns (e.g, "industrial park," "representative democracy") serves ideological
> functions and promotes one-dimensional thought by blurring distinctions and
> flattening contradictions. Is anyone on the list familiar with 
> work--including,
> but not necessarily limited to, technical linguistic analyses--that develops,
> pursues, and/or critiques Marcuse's observations.
>
> >From my perspective, a particularly egregious example of how language serves
> ideological functions by  blurring crucial distinctions is the term "human
> capital," about which in the past forty years a lot of economists have 
> written.
> >From a Marxist perspective, the term human capital is wrong and outrageous 
> >for
> many reasons.  However, I'm looking for critiques of these studies of "human
> capital"--especially those relating it to economic growth--  from other
> perspectives, primarily those which operate within the paradigm of mainstream
> economics as it is practiced/taught in most US universities.
>
> If anybody on the list knows of such critiques of human capital research 
> and/or
> follow-ups to Marcuse's observations about one-dimensional thought, I would be
> grateful if you'd let me know. (It might be easier to email me directly rather
> than clog up the list with topics in which only a few folks might be
> interested).
>
> Many thanks.
>
> ---Steve Smith
>     smiths@xxxxxxxxxxxx

--

Xxxx Xxxxx Xxxxxx
PhD Student
Department of Political Science
SUNY at Albany
Nelson A. Rockefeller College
135 Western Ave.; Milne 102
Albany, NY 12222



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