{"product_id":"life-advice-from-below-the-public-role-of-self-help-coaches-in-germany-and-china-9789004319578","title":"Life Advice from Below: The Public Role of Self-Help Coaches in Germany and China","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn Life Advice from Below, Eric C. Hendriks offers the first systematic, comparative study of the globalization of American-style self-help culture and the cultural conflicts this creates in different national contexts. The self-help guru is an archetypical American figure associated with individualism, materialism and the American Dream. Nonetheless, the self-help industry is spreading globally, thriving in China and other seemingly unlikely places. Controversy follows in its wake, as the self-help industry, operating outside of formal education and state institutions, outflanks philosophical, religious and political elites who have their own visions of the Good Life. Through a comparison of Germany and China, Hendriks analyzes how the competition between self-help gurus and institutional authorities unfolds under radically different politico-cultural regimes.  “This witty book charms its way through a very serious sociology of the seriously quirky field of self-help books. Read it for its fascinating pop-culture insights and you’ll come away with a deep understanding of contemporary sociological theory. Highly recommended.” - Salvatore Babones, University of Sydney   “Hendriks’ finding that Germany rather than China is more resistant to self-help gurus offers a powerful corrective to the assumption in much of the globalization literature that the greatest cultural divide is between the Anglo-Western European sphere and the rest of the globe.” - Rodney Benson, New York University\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This witty book charms its way through a very serious sociology of the seriously quirky field of self-help books. Read it for its fascinating pop-culture insights and you’ll come away with a deep understanding of contemporary sociological theory. Highly recommended.” - Salvatore Babones, University of Sydney, author of American Tianxia: Chinese Money, American Power, and the End of History (Policy Press, 2017)   “Hendriks’ finding that Germany rather than China is (at least slightly) more resistant to self-help gurus offers a powerful corrective to the assumption in much of the globalization literature that the greatest cultural divide is between the Anglo-Western European sphere and the rest of the globe. Instead, as Hendriks suggests, the most relevant divide may between the (few remaining) social democratic nation-states and neo-liberal (or neo-liberalizing) nation-states, regardless of their geographical location.” - Rodney Benson, New York University, author of Shaping Immigration News: A French-American Comparison (Cambridge University Press, 2013)   “This is an original, creative piece of work with an enormous ambition to conduct comparative case studies in two foreign cultures simultaneously.” - Hartmut Wessler, University of Mannheim, co-author of Transnationalization of Public Spheres (Springer, 2008)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePreface List of Figures and Tables  1 Introduction  2 Cultural Fields in the Public Sphere  3 The Persistence of National Regimes  4 Global Popular Culture and Self-Help  5 Lines of Conflict  6 Mapping and Comparing Social Space  7 The German Self-Help Field  8 Clashing into Germany’s Corporatist Welfare Regime  9 The Chinese Self-Help Field  10 Coexisting with China’s Institutional Authorities  11 Conclusion  Bibliography Index","brand":"Brill","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53210686423383,"sku":"9789004319578","price":95.2,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/life-advice-from-below-the-public-role-of-self-help-coaches-in-germany-and-china-9789004319578","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}