ABSTRACT
The global financial crisis and a deep economic recession have intensified public disquiet in the United Kingdom and elsewhere over the excesses of capitalism exposed: the extravagant and inequitable rewards; the distortions (and deceit) created by ill-conceived performance targets; the reliance on hireand-fire “numerical flexibility”; work intensification and the associated rise in health problems, notably stress. At an even more fundamental level, neo-liberal capitalism’s foundational assumption that short-term profit maximization is the optimal approach to business has come in for a sustained critique.
