Working Alternatives: American and Catholic Experiments in Work and Economy (Catholic Practice in North America)

Review
John Seitz and Christine Firer Hinze have produced a multi-disciplinary collection of essays exploring creatively the character of work. The personal commitments of the authors and the diversity of contexts they address – from business to university to the unpaid work of care-givers – provide the reader with a wide range of insights for understanding and transforming work in the 21st century.---Daniel Finn, College of St. Benedict/St. John's University
Working Alternatives’ practical and pluralistic approach to economic justice is an original and important intervention for equality and change. It overcomes a longstanding pitfall of Catholic social teaching: grand schemes and moral appeals that lack traction against powerful interests that benefit from the status quo. These authors show how creative local efforts can rebalance economic power, even if a major overhaul of market capitalism is still aspirational. If you have ever felt that Catholic economic thought involves a lot more exhortation than it does realistic plans of action, this book will give you renewed energy and hope.---Lisa Sowle Cahill, Monan Professor of Theology, Boston College
This is an excellent exploration of solutions to problems and issues of work and economics. Highly recommended. ― Choice
Working Alternatives explores economic life from a humanistic and multidisciplinary perspective, with a particular eye on religions’ implications in practices of work, management, supply, production, remuneration, and exchange. Its contributors draw upon historical, ethical, business, and theological conversations considering the sources of economic sustainability and justice.
The essays in this book―from scholars of business, religious ethics, and history―offer readers practical understanding and analytical leverage over these pressing issues. Modern Catholic social teaching―a 125-year-old effort to apply Christian thinking about the implications of faith for social, political, and economic circumstances―provides the key springboard for these discussions.
Contributors: Gerald J. Beyer, Alison Collis Greene, Kathleen Holscher, Michael Naughton, Michael Pirson, Nicholas Rademacher, Vincent Stanley, Sandra Sullivan-Dunbar, Kirsten Swinth, Sandra Waddock