Being and Well-Being: Health and the Working Bodies of Silicon Valley - Tapa dura

"This outstanding book dissects the social fabric of Silicon Valley, a slice of the California coast marked by high technology and social, ethnic, and cultural diversity . . . Personal narratives vividly recount how age cohorts-from adolescents to the adult workforce and beyond-define and deal with health, work, and careers . . . Highly recommended." -- E. Wellin "A remarkable book. Personal narratives bring vividly to life the generational differences in perspectives toward work and health, as well as illuminate the diversity and complexity of the shared environment in which these lives are led. Being and Well-Being raises important questions regarding the changing nature of work, of healthcare, of personal agency, of social networks, of cultural pluralism and of social justice, to name only a few." -- Lisa Faithorn, Ph.D., cultural anthropologist and organizational development practitioner * researcher for NASA * "Clearly written with compelling stories, English-Lueck's anthropological study has much to tell historians of technology . . . This book is especially timely when the issue of national health insurance is so much at the fore. By showing how corporations' organization of production affects workers' health decisions, it highlights the inadequacies and costs of our current system" -- Janet Ore "A fascinating and timely exploration of the interweaving of work, health, and aging in Silicon Valley at the turn of the 21st century. English-Lueck approaches the anthropology of work from the typically neglected but critical perspective of the bodies of workers. The book is informed and insightful." -- Diane Schiano * Silicon Valley User Experience Researcher * "Carefully written, using data mined from a range of ethnographic projects spanning a period of 15 years, this thought-provoking monograph posits that Silicon Valley is very much a 'bellwether' for a host of emergent cultural forces related to work . . . Detailed and enjoyable to read, this monograph is a fine demonstration of the anthropologist's ability to challenge static social science categories . . . English-Lueck's text strips away economistic myopia and highlights with aplomb the human consequences of living and working in the Bay area and beyond." -- Kye Parkin * Anthropology of Work Review *

This book tells the stories of the workers, the young people who will be future workers, and retired people who feel capitalism in their very bodies, as they work to define what it means to be healthy in America.