William Davies, "The Happiness Industry: How the Government and Big Business Sold Us Well-Being"

Summary: William DaviesView on AmazonAre you happy? In his new book The Happiness Industry: How the Government and Big Business Sold Us Well-Being (Verso, 2015), William Davies, a senior lecturer at Goldsmiths' College, University of London, critically investigates this question. The book offers skepticism towards the demand that economy and society be happy, scepticism founded in an interrogation of the practices of contemporary government and businesses. A whole range of our everyday experiences, including 'nudges' for citizens and staff, the perverse incentives of metrics, through to the consequences of how psychiatry classifies depression, are subject to critical scrutiny. Moreover, the book acts as a primer on economics, psychology and organizational theory, clearly articulating the roots and the consequences of our current economic and social settlement. The book concludes with the possibility of a more democratic way of organizing the world, in contrast to our impersonal, oppressive, and data driven present. Dr Davies is a co-director of Goldsmiths' Political Economy Research Centre and blogs at Potlatch.