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Working for the brand : how corporations are destroying free speech

Bornstein, Josh2024
Books, Manuscripts
Josh Bornstein asks how our major corporations have come to exercise repressive control over the lives of their employees, and explores what can be done to repair the greatest threat to democracy - the out-of-control corporation. When you go to work, you agree to exchange your labour in exchange for your pay packet, right? Actually, you may not realise it, but you are also selling your rights to free speech and to participate in democracy. Welcome to corporate cancel culture, a burgeoning phenomenon that is routinely ignored in debates about free speech. If you work for a large company, it will not allow you to say or do anything that harms its brand - at or outside work. If you transgress and attract controversy - whether for cracking a joke, a Facebook like, or a political post on Tik Tok, you can be shamed, sacked, and blacklisted. In the twenty-first century, major corporations have become the most powerful institution in the world - more powerful than many nations. That unchecked, anti-democratic power is reflected in the gaming of the political system, the weakening of governments, and the repressive control of the lives of employees. While their behaviour has deteriorated, corporations have invested heavily in ethically washed brands, claiming to be saving the planet and doing good. As Josh Bornstein argues, we would not tolerate a government that censored, controlled, and punished us in this way, so why do we meekly accept the growing authoritarianism of the companies that we work for?
Imprint:
Carlton North, VIC : Scribe Publications, 2024.©2024.
Collation:
294 pages. ; 23 cm.
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references.
Contents:
1. Rage and revenge2. Flexible control3. Do corporations have feelings?4. The ethically washed brand5. A festival of hypocrisy: free speech and cancel culture6. Academic freedom and the university brand7. The journalism paradox8. Consensual sex and work9. The battle to democratise economic power.
ISBN:
9781761381041 (paperback)
Dewey class:
323.443
Language:
English
BRN:
506194
LocationCollectionCall numberStatus/Desc
PenrithNonfiction323.443 WORAvailableRecently returned
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