Together

The rituals, pleasures, and politics of cooperation. Divided into three parts, Juntos explores how we can learn to cooperate in the intensely competitive and selfish cultures we live in today. It also explains why the concept of cooperation has lost its power and how it could be revived.

Since his previous work, The Craftsman , Richard Sennett has focused on the skills necessary for our daily lives, analyzing the struggle, that is, the commitment to doing material things well. In Together , continuing his earlier reflections, the author focuses on a fundamental aspect of achieving the tasks performed with our hands: cooperation.

Living with people who are different—racially, ethnically, religiously, or economically—is the most pressing challenge facing civil society today. We tend to avoid social engagement with people who are different from ourselves. This book examines why this happens and what can be done to change it.

The author argues that cooperation is an art, and the foundations for skillful cooperation lie in learning to listen well and evaluate, rather than verbally dueling. Sennett explores how people can collaborate online, on the streets, in schools, at work, and in local politics. He traces the evolution of cooperation rituals from medieval times to the present, and in situations as diverse as slave communities, socialist groups in Paris, and Wall Street workers.

Divided into three parts, Together addresses the nature of cooperation, why it has become weak, and how it could be strengthened. Sennett warns that we must learn the art of cooperation if we want our society—individualistic and competitive—to thrive, and he assures us that we are capable of it, as the ability to cooperate is part of human nature.